Utilization of Municipal Solid Waste Compost: Research Trials at the Johnson City,Tennessee Facility

? In 1963, the Division of Health and Safety of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) proposed construction and operation of a composting plant at some medium-sized city in the valley, primarily as a means of disposing of solid wastes, but also as a means of converting wastes into a material useful for erosion control, land reclamation and soil improvement. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the TVA cooperated in the operation of a composting plant at Johnson City, Tennessee from 1967 to 1971. An outdoor windrow process was used. Sewage sludge was incorporated with the MSW up to 20 percent of the total compost solids.

Johnson City compost was used in numerous demonstrations in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, starting in the fall of 1968. Replicated field plot experiments were also carried out at Muscle Shoals, Alabama and eastern Tennessee. This report reviews results of those demonstration studies, as well as analyses of material used for stripmine reclamation and for ash pond stabilization. The results were in papers published by agronomists on the TVA staff in the 1970s. Data over a 19-year period following compost application are reviewed for impact on crop yield, organic matter and nutrient supply.