ATLANTA – A bill that would allow crematories in Georgia to use dissolving chemicals along with the usual furnace burning cleared the Georgia Senate on Monday.
Senate Bill 296 would permit crematories to undertake the process of alkaline hydrolysis, which combines water, alkaline chemicals, pressure and heat to liquify most human remains. The dissolving process breaks down fat and tissues into liquid, leaving behind bone fragments.
Alkaline hydrolysis, or “aquamation”, is used as an alternative to traditional fire-burning furnaces or burials in several states, according to the advocacy group Cremation Association of North America. The group describes it as more environmentally friendly, a “gentler process.”
Sen. Bill Heath, the legislation’s sponsor, said he brought it to clarify that Georgia law already permits alkaline hydrolysis on paper but the state board that licenses funeral homes still does not permit it.
Heath, R-Bremen, said he drafted the bill after hearing from a crematory owner who bought equipment able to perform alkaline hydrolysis but was told he could not use it.
“It has been an accepted process,” he said.
Mindy Miller-Moats, a fourth-generation funeral home operator in Tallapoosa, said she purchased equipment to dissolve bodies as a way to give families another option to cremate their loved ones. The process is fast and produces much less energy than combusting fire, she said.
“Given the option, a lot of families do find that this is less abrasive than fire,” Miller-Moats said at a Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee meeting last week.
Asked about the watery discharge from the dissolved body, Miller-Moats said the “effluent” produced is made up of harmless compounds like amino acids, sugars, nutrients, salts and soap. Typically, the dissolved water is flushed into an area’s sewage system for disposal, she said.
Many sewage treatment utilities consider the discharge as “a welcome addition” because it can help clean underground pipes, she added.
“These are all just the basic building blocks of what our bodies are made of,” Miller-Moats said. “This whole process is taking your body’s natural decomposition process and speeding it up.”
She noted the process is also used by research facilities, veterinary hospitals and pharmaceutical companies.
The Georgia Funeral Directors Association backs the bill and alkaline hydrolysis as a more environmentally friendly and efficient cremation process.
“You’re giving the public a choice (and) this is a much cleaner choice,” said William Hightower, the association’s president.
Still, Senate Minority Leader Steve Henson, D-Stone Mountain, said he would like to have assurance from state environmental regulators that the water would indeed be clean before it’s sent into any wastewater system.
“My big concern is that I would like to make sure that that water is going to be tested,” Henson said at last week’s committee meeting.
Jacqueline Echols, board president of the nonprofit South River Watershed Alliance, agreed funeral homes that dissolve human remains should fall under treatment regulations overseen by the state Environmental Protection Division.
On Monday, Henson also tried to tack an amendment onto the bill Monday that would give city and county governments the ability to set their own rules on licensing crematories, but it failed along party lines.
The bill passed by a 35-10 vote Monday. It now heads to the state House.
This story has been updated to include testimony from the Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities committee meeting held on Jan. 28, 2020.