How safe is Milorganite?

Milorganite products belong to a class of materials called biosolids. Biosolids are the residual microbes that have digested nutrients out of sewage waste streams. These EPA regulations define the use of biosolids as a fertilizer at two distinct tiers. The first tier is using biosolids as a fertilizer on non-food crops (lawns, grain fields, and the like). The second tier is the so-called Exceptional Quality or EQ definition. This allows biosolids that contain exceptionally low amounts of heavy metals and pathogens to be used on food crops such as vegetable gardens, fruit trees and similar locations.

All Milorganite® branded fertilizers have met and exceeded the 1993 US EPA 40 CFR Part 503 EQ regulatory requirements plus applicable state standards for metals, pathogens and vector attraction. We have done this since their inception in 1993.

Facts about heavy metals:

All fertilizers, both organic and synthetic, contain some heavy metals. In fact, plants need some heavy metals, such as zinc and copper and molybdenum, for normal, healthy growth. Milorganite meets the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) "Exceptional Quality" criteria (see chart), which establishes the strictest concentration limits in the fertilizer industry for heavy metals. Many other common fertilizer products exceed the limits for metal concentrations established by the EPA "Exceptional Quality" standards. Milorganite, though, can be used with confidence for all your fertilizing needs, including use on all types of grass, trees, shrubs, flowers and vegetable gardens.

Milorganite has strong controls

• Milorganite is subject to DAILY and weekly laboratory testing and analysis to guarantee safety and nutrient analysis
• Milwaukee industrial monitors regularly check what large users are sending into the waste stream, which includes metals
• Milorganite is regulated by the EPA

** 40 C.F.R. Part 503 Final Rule, as amended August 4, 1999, 64 Fed Reg 42552, & October 25, 1995, 60 Fed. Reg. 54764, after, Leather Industries v. EPA, 40 F.3d 392 (D.C. Cir. 1994)