Going against the protests of some students, Cal Poly’s on-campus food waste composting program was removed last Tuesday, along with the manure compost, leaving many students questioning the reasoning behind the College of Agriculture’s decision.
Andy Thulin, interim farm operations manager and department head for the animal science department, said he made the decision to remove the compost windrows from the Cal Poly Organic Farm because the food waste and the manure waste were in too close in proximity to each other, among other reasons.
“Unfortunately it (the compost) all drains downhill and down to the creek area. The other thing is the poultry center is less than 100 yards from where 12,000 birds are kept to produce birds with Foster Farms,” Thulin said. “With all these birds on campus, avian flu can spread fairly rapidly.”
Carlos Torres, biology graduate student and Organic Farm head composter, said this view was slanted. He said the compost covers were made from fleece and wool and were put on to repel water, and said there was only a minimum amount of run-off.
Peter Cron, staff analyst for San Luis Obispo Integrated Waste Management, a company that started the compost at Cal Poly, said that the covers were “supposed to help to avoid run-off and deter anything from getting out.”
Thulin originally addressed general concerns about the compost with College of Agriculture Dean David J. Wehner after rumors the program may be shut down during the week of Oct. 13-17.
The final decision for its removal was made during a closed meeting last Monday night with Organic Farm manager Cindy Douglas and Hunter Francis, program coordinator for SARC at Cal Poly, as well as Thulin and Wehner.
“Ultimately it’s up to the head of operations; he has control and is responsible for the run-off and pollution,” Douglas said. “It is about who cares about the farm and the education behind the benefits of composting for the students since we were doing really good here.”
Torres said that some students spoke against the removal of the compost.
“We had a symbolic demonstration of seven students. It was painful. This is my job and they are refusing to talk to students,” Torres said. “They made this decision without thinking about the consequences.”
Associated Students Inc. President Angela Kramer, who ran her campaign for with an environmentally-friendly agenda last spring, has been an avid supporter of sustainability on campus.
“Unfortunately that progress has been halted,” she said of the compost. “The College of Agriculture has their own reasons and maybe (the Organic Farm’s compost) will branch away and work instead (of College of Agriculture) with facilities. I don’t think anyone is trying to destroy green campus initiatives.”
Kramer says that she supports a meeting with stakeholders to work on problems with the composting program.
“I am planning a personal meeting and sent in a letter concerning the issues and stating my issue with the importance of composting,” she said.
Over the next few weeks, Thulin said they will devise a new set of standard operating procedures for the future composting and will take temperature and pathogen samples as a precautionary measure.
Both Thulin and Wehner said there was no pre-existing standard operating procedure for the compost, which goes directly onto the organic farm’s plants.
“If someone gets sick from the compost or animal compost it will be a tremendous liability for the university,” Thulin said. “No one is against composting. We are pro-compost and now we are looking for a site with no water quality issues that is larger and (able) to handle composting if it were to continue.”
With at least 50 students involved in composting through the Organic Farm and the Zero Waste Club, some students wonder why they were not involved in the final decision. Wehner says that these students don’t understand the problem.
“Students who are up in arms aren’t going to have to pay the fines,” Wehner said. “Finding a new site for compost came with liabilities with water and water quality.”
He stressed that there was no hidden agenda behind the decision to remove the compost and said if the university didn’t comply with EPA rules and there was significant bacteria run-off into the nearby stream it would be fined $50,000, equal to the salary of a full-time lecturer. He said he’d rather keep a lecturer than the program.
“This is a safe approach for the college. This is temporary and there is no controversy here,” Wehner said.
Wehner and Thulin say they decided to relocate the compost without looking at research or testing samples.
In May 2008, Timothy Bolander, project designer and implementer of the project, published a report that said the compost was tested for and passed pathogen and heavy metal standards from July to December 2007.
He provided testings in compliance with the U.S. Composting Council’s Test Methods for the Examination of Composting and Compost (TMECC) and found safe levels of Fecal coliform (feces) and Salmonella in October 2007. In another test in March 2007, pathogens passed for Fecal coliform but not Salmonella.
Wehner and Thulin said that they did not read the report but stated that if there was a fine, the College of Agriculture would have to pay it, not the Integrated Waste Management.
“Truly our intent was to put in a demonstration project on how to do it and provided research,” Cron said.
“We did do some pathogen work, but when it comes down to it, it’s Cal Poly’s property and it’s their decision.”
According to the report, the yearly gross income from the sale of bagged compost without tipping fees was estimated around $18,595.
Douglas said that without the food waste compost the Organic Farm will now have to buy the compost.
The removal of the compost impacts another campus program too. Director of campus dining, Alan Cushman, said he was told on Oct. 15 to discontinue putting food waste into the compost. Instead, 1,800 pounds of waste a day goes directly in the trash.
“We were capable of increasing flow (to compost) but we asked to hold it,” Cushman said. “It’s essential to proceed in proper fashions and we are excited for the future of composting.”
Cal Poly trucks and a hired company hauled the remaining sites from Chorro Creek Farm off U.S. Highway 1 while other compost was taken to field 34 near the dairy units on campus.
Wehner and Thulin said that the piles were fully decomposed, but Torres claims that the piles taken from the site had not fully completed the ‘curing process cycle,’ meaning that the compost was not ready to go into the ground since it normally takes about 20 weeks to normally decompose.
The food waste compost won the Innovative Waste Reduction award last summer at the seventh annual UC/CSU/CCC Sustainability Conference.
Cal Poly shared the honor with the Integrated Waste Management (IWM) Program who helped start the program in 2006 by providing at least 10,000 dollars to start up the composting. They also took part in research of the project.