Site Specific Risk Assessment Tools for Land Applied Biosolids

This report compiles information from a wide variety of sources into a documented tool for regulators and land applicators to perform site-specific assessments of microbial risk for land-applied biosolids. This includes estimates of the effect of different setback requirements on microbial risk, the relative risks associated with different pathogens and exposure pathways, and the correspondence between indicator organisms and pathogens. The report includes an environmental dispersion, exposure, and risk model, known as the Spreadsheet Microbial Assessment of Risk: Tool for Biosolids (SMART Biosolids) which will enable wastewater utilities, land applicators, and regulators estimate microbial risk from biosolids land application under a variety of scenarios, giving them insight into effective management practices. The researchers also conducted field monitoring to assess the fate and transport of microbes from land application during wet weather events. Published in 2012.

As of December 2023, the SMART Biosolids tool has been discontinued.

Originally funded as WERF project SRSK3R08.