Oklahoma Mom Demands We Stop Dumping Sewage On America's Farmland

Founder of Mission503, Paula B. Yockel, asks for meeting with Trump to end federal rule that allows toxic sewage to pollute our food, poison rural communities.

5 minute read

Why am I, an Oklahoma mom, fighting against all odds for the health of our nation, while asking for—and expecting—a meeting with the President of the United States? To me, it’s clear as day.

A U.S. federal rule is marketing toxic sewage sludge to farmers under the guise of agricultural fertilizer, inflicting illness and disease upon the American people while contaminating our great land. The harm this rule imposed upon my family and community is not only unacceptable and unconscionable, it is un-American.

As newlywed young professionals in 2004, my husband and I began searching for land just outside of Oklahoma City to build a new home and raise a family—maybe even have horses and a barn as I had in my childhood. We finally found a spot that fit the bill. The land was a little rough, as was the home, but we saw the potential to make it our dream home.

There were days, however, we’d detect an awful smell in the air. Then winds would shift. The odor would disappear.

“Oh that’s noth’n,” we were told, “It’s just the fertilizer up the street.” At the time, we didn’t think much more of it. The sporadic episodes of stench continued. Life continued.

But in 2008 I noticed trucks dumping massive loads of black, oozing muck on the farm next to our home. Someone smacking a rock with a Louisville Slugger could’ve hit the trucks from my front porch, it was that close, and the stench was unbearable. Nausea, headaches, GI distress and dizziness were almost immediate.

I began making calls, writing letters, and submitting complaints. I wanted answers, wanted it stopped, and that’s when I learned that this “fertilizer” was actually toxic sewage. Not only did we have zero knowledge that we bought land in the community where Oklahoma City had been dumping their sewage sludge for decades, we’d never fathomed this practice existed.

Dumping city sewage on farmland? In America? Near people’s homes? Are you kidding me?

As I look back at the letters I wrote to officials in the summer of 2008, my heart hurts for the author, as if I am reading someone else’s story. The respectful, yet desperate pleas for help… for relief from the stench and the plague of flies… describing the illnesses, even for guests who came to visit.

It’s all so wretched.

Here is the surreal reply I received in August 2008, to a complaint I submitted to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.

This is only one of countless experiences over the course of many years where our concerns were trivialized. And my experience is shared by rural Americans across the U.S.

Pursuant to U.S. federal rule 40 CFR Part 503, our nation’s sewage sludge is marketed to farmers as “nutrient-rich biosolids” and dumped on farmland in communities where millions of Americans call home. People are paying a price for this practice with their Life, Liberty and Happiness, while government officials ignore their desperate pleas for help.

Throughout the years we battled sludge being land-applied near our home. At times we’d seek shelter with family or at a hotel to escape the stench. When sludge was spread on farmland next to our home, we were convinced it made us sick. But we didn’t really connect the dots between sewage exposure and the unusual illnesses we’d get, like patches of blisters and weird rashes, ear canal dysfunction, heart arrhythmias, MRSA infections, and strep throat so severe my doctor feared it had abscessed into my brain.

And we definitely didn’t realize it may have caused the health problems during my pregnancy and the risky delivery of our son. We assumed these things were just part of life. Plus, authorities were assuring us that spreading “biosolids” on the land around us was safe and couldn’t harm us.

But all this changed in late 2015, when tons of sludge were dumped next door to our home, and then again a few weeks later, just up the road. It was a cold, wet winter, and breathing in sewage caused severe and oppressive illness for my entire family living downwind. My husband and I were too ill to care for our sick son, so my in-laws took our child to their home.

The sweat from our fevers smelled like rot. Severe weight loss. Brain fog. The bloody gunk we were hacking out of our lungs was shocking—no words can convey the health hell we went through that winter. Some of that impact will be life-long.

Through the fog of sickness, I began calling for meetings with authorities and politicians who, again, kept passing the buck. One official who met with me several times, however, did mention her concern about my severe weight loss. I also began compiling and distributing research binders to various authorities.

After deciding that research from other states wouldn’t sway them, we requested samples of the “biosolids” to conduct our own testing. We simply sought facts, but it led to six years of intense study and primary research, collaborating with top academic researchers. We eventually concluded that our nation’s federal rule for sewage disposal is deceiving farmers, and exposing Americans to dangerous pathogens and chemical pollutants that are well-known to cause acute and chronic illness, while contaminating air, water, soil, food supply and our beautiful natural environment, while compromising national security.

Our dreams changed. We are now fighting for the health of our nation. We founded the nonprofit Mission503 to stop the land-disposal of sewage sludge and to lead the way to new solutions for this toxic waste.

That’s why I’m calling on President Trump to meet with me so we can end this scourge on our nation and make America healthy again.

Paula B. Yockel is the founder of the nonprofit, Mission503, Inc. in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Watch her video Open Letter to POTUS here. See the research, community health data, and join the efforts of Mission503 at www.Mission503.org. Follow on social media @Mission503USA. Email Paula at Connect@Mission503.org.