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The Khaki King's Icky Legacy:
Remember that scene in 'Mad Max: Fury Road' where Furiosa screams at the sight of the 'Green Place' now a toxic swamp? It's a little like what's happened on 10,000 acres of farmland in South Carolina, except instead of despotic warlords causing the ecological disaster, it was a textile mill fancied as the 'King of Khaki'. For years, this mill handed out its sewage sludge as free fertilizer, ingeniously upcycling waste, right? Wrong! Today, that land is less 'fertile farmland' and more 'forever chemical funfair'.
Scenic South Carolina: Alligators, Rusting Tanks, and Toxic Farmland:
South Carolina's Galey & Lord textile mill, once a proud purveyor of casual cotton twills, seems more like an apocalyptic playground now. Stolen steel gates, rusting tanks, lurking gators in wastewater ponds - basically post-apocalyptic Airbnb material. But look past the grunge aesthetic and you find a more pressing issue: the fields surrounding this dystopian place are contaminated, a whopping 10,000 acres' worth, needing a Superfund cleanup (think mega-sized, federally run spring cleaning).
It turns out the sludge the mill had benevolently been gifting local farmers was laced with “forever chemicals”, more suitably named PFAS, infamous for their links to various diseases, including cancer. Testing has revealed high concentrations of these nasties on farms fertilized with Galey & Lord's dubious sludge. Not to point fingers, but this would be the first time farmland gets marked a Superfund cleanup site all because of contaminated sewage sludge fertilizer.
From King of Khaki to Wizard of Ooze: What's Next?
Now that we've painted a suitably gloomy picture, let's talk prognosis. South Carolina's Department of Health and Environmental Control has put the ball firmly in the federal court, calling for an unprecedented Superfund cleanup. Will this serve as a wake-up call for the other potential 'Kings of Khaki' out there? Let's hope so. Because the last thing any farmer needs is their soil acting as the sequel to 'Chernobyl'.
Remember that scene in 'Mad Max: Fury Road' where Furiosa screams at the sight of the 'Green Place' now a toxic swamp? It's a little like what's happened on 10,000 acres of farmland in South Carolina, except instead of despotic warlords causing the ecological disaster, it was a textile mill fancied as the 'King of Khaki'. For years, this mill handed out its sewage sludge as free fertilizer, ingeniously upcycling waste, right? Wrong! Today, that land is less 'fertile farmland' and more 'forever chemical funfair'.
Scenic South Carolina: Alligators, Rusting Tanks, and Toxic Farmland:
South Carolina's Galey & Lord textile mill, once a proud purveyor of casual cotton twills, seems more like an apocalyptic playground now. Stolen steel gates, rusting tanks, lurking gators in wastewater ponds - basically post-apocalyptic Airbnb material. But look past the grunge aesthetic and you find a more pressing issue: the fields surrounding this dystopian place are contaminated, a whopping 10,000 acres' worth, needing a Superfund cleanup (think mega-sized, federally run spring cleaning).
It turns out the sludge the mill had benevolently been gifting local farmers was laced with “forever chemicals”, more suitably named PFAS, infamous for their links to various diseases, including cancer. Testing has revealed high concentrations of these nasties on farms fertilized with Galey & Lord's dubious sludge. Not to point fingers, but this would be the first time farmland gets marked a Superfund cleanup site all because of contaminated sewage sludge fertilizer.
From King of Khaki to Wizard of Ooze: What's Next?
Now that we've painted a suitably gloomy picture, let's talk prognosis. South Carolina's Department of Health and Environmental Control has put the ball firmly in the federal court, calling for an unprecedented Superfund cleanup. Will this serve as a wake-up call for the other potential 'Kings of Khaki' out there? Let's hope so. Because the last thing any farmer needs is their soil acting as the sequel to 'Chernobyl'.
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