An online news service used by radicals and anarchists has welcomed an unlikely contributor – the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

SFPUC spokesman Tony Winnicker posted a piece Friday about San Francisco’s biosolids compost program to the environmental section of the indybay.org website.

The website is frequently used by activists to organize protests, boycotts and other demonstrations against corporate greed, police brutality and government inaction.

Winnicker’s piece was written in response to claims by the Washington D.C.- and San Francisco-based Center For Food Safety nonprofit group that the compost, which includes treated sewage and is given away free to San Francisco households, is toxic sludge.

“San Francisco's biosolids compost is safe, tested and great for plants,” Winnicker wrote in an indybay.org post on Friday. “It is tested for metals and other contaminants and it meets or exceeds all standards, even EU standards!”

Winnicker said Monday the information was posted to indybay.org because that website was used by the Center for Food Safety to post its original biosolids claims.

“One of the best things about this era of alterative interactive media is that you can post responses,” Winnicker said.

The Center for Food Safety’s claims appear to have had little effect on the biosolids program, which gave away 25 tons of compost over the weekend, according to Winnicker.
 

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