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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Compost customers don’t care about source


Don Keil, assistant wastewater superintendent for Coeur d'Alene, gives a tour of Coeur d'Green, a biosolids compost, which is sold to landscaping facilities. 
 (Kathy Plonka / The Spokesman-Review)

With its clumpy texture and earthy scent, Coeur d’Green compost is a favorite of customers at Northland Nursery in Post Falls.

They buy it by the truckload for gardens and new lawns. Only a few are put off by its origins. The nitrogen-rich compost is made from biosolids culled from the city of Coeur d’Alene’s wastewater treatment plant.

“A lot of people like that recycling idea. Some have issues with it,” says Dianna Decker, who owns Northland Nursery with her husband, Jay. “We tell them it’s EPA tested.”

Besides, she adds matter-of-factly: “We sell other products made from recycled people poop.”

The city began producing Coeur d’Green in 1990. As a business proposition, the compost is a money loser. The city generates about $28,000 from the sale of the trademarked product each year, recouping just a fraction of the cost of producing it.

But the compost is slightly cheaper and more predictable than the city’s other disposal option: Finding farmers willing to apply municipal sludge to their fields, said Don Keil, Coeur d’Alene’s assistant wastewater superintendent.

The city produces about 4,000 cubic yards of Coeur d’Green annually. That’s 2.2 pounds per year, per person.

The compost is black, like coal. It emits a mild greenhouse odor, more humus than honey buckets.

The biosolids have already been through a primary treatment process by the time they’re trucked to the 18-acre Coeur d’Green plant on Julia Avenue. They’re mixed with wood chips, and left to compost. Microbes do the dirty work, Keil says.

During a 51-day curing process, temperatures in the piles of biosolids reach 131 degrees. Workers check the temperature frequently, making sure the mixture gets hot enough to kill pathogens.

Coeur d’Green is safe to use on vegetable gardens, Keil says. The compost meets all U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations for use in agriculture and horticulture.

Golf courses are big consumers of Coeur d’Green. Keil himself is an enthusiastic promoter. In 1991, he bought $142 worth of the compost to seed his new law.

“It came out just fine,” he says.

“It’s quicker to establish grass because of its moisture holding capacity.”

Keil’s been bullish on biosolids since he worked at Montana State University’s plant, soil and irrigation laboratory during the 1980s. He used to take five-gallon buckets of biosolids home for his wife, a gardener.

Coeur d’Green and other products like it beat out steer manure for nitrogen content. That’s because the human diet is rich in protein, while cows only eat grass, Keil says.

The fluffiness of the compost also provides aeration in the soil, which gives plants a boost, he says.

The city sells Coeur d’Green in bulk to landscaping firms. Northland Nursery and Grace Tree & Forestry in Hayden are two of the largest purchasers. They retail the compost for $20 to $22 per cubic yard.

“We sell a ton of it. We also use a tremendous amount of it in our business,” said Tim Kastning, owner of Grace Tree & Forestry.

Kastning often works in new subdivisions, where the layer of organic material was scraped away during the construction process. Coeur d’Green reintroduces beneficial bacteria to the soil, he says. “Healthy soil makes for a healthy tree.”

At Northland Nursery, people cart away Coeur d’Green in the backs of pickups, or in garbage cans. The nursery also delivers. The compost is a good enhancement for “the soil conditions that God left us,” Decker says.

“That rocky, sandy junk.”

Many of her customers prefer man-made fertilizer to chemical compounds.

She tells the finicky to read the labels of other compost products. Many are made with biosolids.

“They don’t realize they’re already sticking their fingers in it,” Decker says.