Kansas City, Mo.-State and federal investigators say it will be months before the final results are available from the second round of sampling farms in northwest Missouri for chromium 6 in sludge used as fertilizer. A spokesman for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) told Green Markets that the state is working with EPA to develop protocol for sampling more farms in northwest Missouri that received the sludge from a tannery now being operated by National Beef Co. “Nobody has ever conducted large scale farm field sampling for chromium, so new protocols need to be developed,” explained DNR’s Larry Archer. “When the protocol is ready we’ll be ready.” However, initial sampling earlier this year by DNR and EPA in three of the four counties found only trace amounts of hexavalent chromium ?Çô a known carcinogen also known as chromium 6 ?Çô which are considered not high enough to threaten human health. Archer said that the team is putting finishing touches on identifying fields to be sampled with the owner’s approval, and plans are to include small, medium, and large acreages that received the sludge from former owner Prime Tanning starting in 1983. “We were not expecting to find any chromium,” Archer said. “Since we found some, we need to really get out there and try to get a broader picture of the extent of chromium in those fields.” Archer said another phase of the investigation involving steel barrels supposedly buried at the St. Joseph plant nearly 25 years ago has turned up nothing. The search, in response to a complaint filed with the Missouri attorney general, was conducted with ground penetrating radar, but “we couldn’t find anything comparable to buried barrels,” Archer reported. Another site not directly connected with the tannery was also searched.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain