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Roasted potatoes, garden fresh salads and herbed salmon accompanied a helping of expert testimonial by local farmers and scientists about the safety and benefits of biosolids today at King County’s South Treatment Plant.

About 50 people, including elected officials, area farmers and staff from several clean-water utilities, attended a luncheon that featured dishes prepared with the produce recently harvested from the plant’s biosolids demonstration garden in Renton.

Local farmers, soil scientists dish the dirt on biosolids safety and benefits Local farmers, soil scientists dish the dirt on biosolids safety and benefits

“GroCo is similar to other compost, but it has many advantages,” said Dr. Craig Cogger, a soil science expert with Washington State University. “It’s a more consistent product and a reliable, slow-release source of nitrogen. Like other well-prepared composts, the pathogens have been killed, so it’s safe for home garden use.”

About 70 percent of the King County’s biosolids are used on hops and wheat crops in eastern Washington. The rest is used in forestry projects, such as fertilizing land on the Mountains to Sound Greenway, or made into GroCo compost, a consumer-grade product popular with local gardeners.

“Biosolids recycling is an example of resource recovery at its finest,” said Kate Kurtz of the urban farm collective Alleycat Acres in Seattle, which, with the use of biosolids, has produced and donated 500 pounds of fresh produce to the Beacon Hill Food Bank. “What starts as waste in our sewers gets turned into a resource for use in urban areas. It’s effective and sustainable.”

All text taken from the King County website:http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/dnrp/newsroom/newsreleases/2010/September/0909Biosolids.aspx