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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Joshua A. Bickel and Sean Murphy

Residue from human waste has long wound up as farm fertilizer. Some neighbors hate it

When Leslie Stewart moved to her home in a rural expanse of Lincoln County outside of Oklahoma City more than 20 years ago, she thought she'd found a slice of heaven. In a town of fewer than 700 people, her son could attend a good school and her acreage offered plenty of room to raise goats and let her dogs run.

But several years ago, her neighbor began applying sewage sludge, which consists largely of human waste left over from municipal wastewater treatment facilities, as a fertilizer on his farmland, causing a rancid smell so powerful it nearly took her breath away.

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