ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the land application practices and highlights their advantages and disadvantages. Agricultural land application of sewage sludge is practiced in nearly every state, and is especially common in Colorado, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin, Oregon, and Minnesota. The treatment works generating the sewage sludge can benefit because in many cases agricultural land application is less expensive than alternative methods of sewage sludge use or disposal. Sewage sludge application rates for agricultural land application are usually relatively low. Three categories of forest land may be available for sewage sludge application: recently cleared land prior to planting, newly established plantations and established forests. Land application may be extremely attractive in areas where disturbed and marginal lands exist because of the benefit to the treatment works in using or disposing its sewage sludge and to the environment through reclamation of unsightly, largely useless land areas.
