Senator Jett, Rep. Jim Shaw and Oklahoma Donkey Dairy Farmer, Saundra Traywick – Why Dumping Human Waste On Farmland Needs To Stop
Wednesday, February 7th, Michael and I were joined on the ROPE Report podcast by Senator Shane Jett, Representative Jim Shaw and Saundra Traywick to talk about efforts in the Oklahoma legislature to ban ‘biosolids’ – aka humanure, aka biosludge – from use on Oklahoma farmland. You can find the full LIVE broadcast on both our YouTube and Rumble channels.
For many years, Saundra has been sounding the alarm about this stuff that has such an horrific scent that you can smell it for miles and, up close, almost has a feel it’s so strong.
For many years, few have wanted to entertain Saundra’s concerns about what was in it to cause such an odor. Even after stories came to light in the media about towns in Maine and Texas where animals exposed to the sludge were dying and treated farmland lay in ruins from exposure to PFAs, or forever chemicals, found in industrial coating processes and things like firefighting foam.
Her Senator, Shane Jett, got it though. In 2023, he wrote a bill attempting to curtail the dumping of this toxic substance on Oklahoma farmland, but it didn’t even get a hearing. In 2024, SB874 was re-introduced, made it all the way through the Senate and then died on its way to the House.
Last August, Ben Felder with Investigate Midwest came to Luther and wrote a very long and complete article about the issues surrounding the use of human sewage waste on farmland and its link to Maine and Texas farms polluted with PFAs.
In this clip, we talk about how farmers who use this sludge get it for free from a private company who works with the government (the City of Oklahoma City) to remove their sewage waste while they’re assuring the farmers taking the sludge that it’s safe and effective (sort of like a vaccine we’ve heard about). As with so many things, the application of toxic wastewater to farmland apparently has everything to do with money and very little to do with the safety of the farmers using it and the people eating whatever comes off it.
During another part of the video Representative Jim Shaw spent some time talking about how, without regulation, companies tend to do whatever benefits them – whether it’s spraying farmland with human poop, or putting in a carbon capture facility because, well, tax incentives.
As Rep. Shaw says, Oklahoma has to do better at protecting its citizens and that’s what we have to do this year.
Saundra has created a list of legislation to support and oppose. Check the list out and be familiar with some of the issues. These are the bills that MUST be dealt with this year to help solve the problem of toxic sludge dumping. Make sure to contact your Representatives and Senators and let them know how you expect them to vote should they make it to the floor this session. This practice of biosludge dumping may happen in the rural areas of our state, but depending on what is then grown in that soil, it could absolutely affect you and your health as well.
SUPPORT
HB 1726 – prohibiting land application, spreading, sale, and distribution of biosolids
SB 268 – preventing the spread and application of biosolids for farmland
SB 620 – forces those who use biosolids to have to disclose that they have used it
OPPOSE
SB 271 – Exempts cities and wastewater companies from liability for contaminating rural communities, and allows other states to dump their toxic biosludge on Oklahoma as long as it’s within our negligent (currently non-existent) PFAS regulations!
SB 3 – a temporary fix for biosolid application