While acknowledging the ecologically responsible side of composting, Illinois environmental officials are warning that the fumes wafting from piles of decomposing vegetation may be unhealthy.
Composting has been promoted as a way to recycle leaves, grass clippings and other organic materials and save landfill space.
But in response to a request by two citizens who contended that spores arising from decaying plant matter posed a threat to neighbors’ respiratory health, the Illinois Pollution Control Board last week adopted rules to put distance between compost piles and people, especially children.
The statewide rules, which take effect Jan. 1, require compost operators to stay at least one-eighth of a mile away from schools, school athletic fields, child-care facilities and health care centers.
In May, 1997, two state residents requested a half-mile setback that would have applied to existing municipal and commercial facilities. The American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago weighed in, urging a buffer zone of more than half a mile.
Chicago-area municipalities howled that they would have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars moving composting facilities–which, they pointed out, were mandated in the first place by a state law banning yard waste from landfills.
After public hearings and expert testimony, the pollution control board agreed that certain fungal spores emanating from compost piles “pose a potential health threat” to very young children and people with asthma, certain allergies, cystic fibrosis or weakened immune systems.
“The compelling argument around schools and day care centers is that, when you’re smaller, your immune system is not fully mature, so you’re far more susceptible to having breathing problems from various things,” said board spokesman John Cross.
