You are here:
ASSESSMENT OF THE BACTERIOLOGICAL QUALITY OF COMPOST FROM A YARD WASTE PROCESSING FACILITY
Citation:
Meckes, M., E.W. Rice, C. Johnson, AND S. Rock. ASSESSMENT OF THE BACTERIOLOGICAL QUALITY OF COMPOST FROM A YARD WASTE PROCESSING FACILITY. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-95/439.
Description:
Citizen concern over possible pathogenic microorganism contamination in compost and in a runoff collection pond prompted a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigation. ne out of eight samples collected from the distribution pile at a yard waste compost processing facility in Knoxville, Tennessee, was found to have 2.3 x 10 3 PN/g fecal coliform, no Escherichia coli (E. coli) were detected. ll other distribution pile samples proved to be negative for fecal coliform. he geometric mean of the eight samples was found to be less than 38 MPN/g, well below the 1,000 MPN/g limit for land application of class A municipal sludges treated by an acceptable composting process. amples obtained from the processing pile area before and after shredding had an average fecal coliform density of greater than 5.0 x 10 4 or 7.4 x 10 4 MPN g depending upon the analytical technique used. he origin of these microorganisms was not determined, though it appears unlikely that on-site contamination is responsible for these observations. nformation from fecal coliform research in Canada, Hawaii, and the northeastern U.S. suggests that the fecal coliform levels observed in unprocessed yard wastes may represent normal background flora.