Proceedings

ABSTRACT
The Sewer Socialists were pragmatists, who fought for honest government and increased
services, with public health and mortality from water pollution being foremost among the
basic necessities of life. The unique circumstances put Milorganite® 6-2-0 into the
marketplace.

Milorganite® is the bull’s eye of biosolids risk assessment because it is packaged and sold to
the public. U.S. EPA’s biosolids standard adopted an “exceptional quality” provision to ensure the
distribution and marketing could continue and grow. Assessment of possible risk continues.
Home-state regulators presided over a fiveyear PCB risk formulation dominated by highdose-extrapolating toxicologists. The views of
soil scientists who participated in the National Part 503 risk assessment were disregarded.
The human health risk was overstated because fish advisories were thought to not be
sufficiently protective. The wildlife toxicologist insisted that turf grass was an
endangered habitat for restricted-diet virgin female long tailed weasels.

The torture ended when EPA’s probabilistic and deterministic risk assessment of dioxinlike congeners showed the estimated risks
were none-at-all.

KEYWORDS
Biosolids, Dioxin-like, Exceptional Quality(EQ), Milorganite®, Milwaukee Metropolitan
Sewerage District (MMSD), Sewer Socialist, Virgin Weasel.