Sludge Watch ==> Greensboro , NC : Test Builiding sites for sludge contamination

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sludgewatch Admin

It seems that sludging up farms that have been sold to developeers for 
residential housing is an astonishing phenomena across North America.

I could name dozens of sites in Canada and the US where disgusted and 
frightened neighbours watch fields get heavily spread, then watch as new 
homes are built on the site.

These practices have resulted in sickness and lawsuits at some locations.

There is no common sense to such a filthy, dangerous practice, but it is 
widespread.


.....................................................
News & Record Greensboro, NC

August 08, 2006
News & Record Edition

COUNTERPOINT Rebuttals

Test building sites for contamination

ERIC BLACK


Regarding your editorial, "Sludge dumping on farmland could have lingering 
impact" (July 31):
It should be noted that the city of High Point's municipal sludge 
(combination of residential and industrial sludge) was applied from 1993 to 
1997. All of the city of High Point's 1993-1997 tests on file at the 
Department of Environment and Natural Resources showed the presence of 
mercury, lead and arsenic. These substances are ranked numbers one, two and 
three on the EPA/CERCLA Priority List of Hazardous Substances. It is also a 
fact that heavy metals do not dissipate; they accumulate and have a 
propensity to be bound in the soil.

The fact is that more than 1 million gallons of municipal sludge (not 
biosolids) were applied from 1993 to 1997 on approximately 30 acres out of 
the original 230-acre tract of land, and 66 percent of the 95 homes proposed 
will be built on one acre or less - with many of the homes on land where the 
sludge was deposited. Significant disturbance of the soil occurs in 
construction (basements, footings, driveways, septic tanks, drain fields, 
pools, landscaping, etc.), thereby pos-sibly releasing the heavy metals that 
may be bound in the soil.

Keep in mind that no testing has ever been done on this property in regard 
to the potential elevated levels or possi-ble "hot spots" of accumulated 
heavy metals or other toxins.
The residents of the Trinity land (Fuller Mill, Post and Old Mountain Roads) 
are not averse to growth but do ques-tion this "urban sprawl" in what is 
still a farming community.
The sludge issue is not a "convenient" one as you stated, but an issue that 
in the absence of testing could have po-tentially serious consequences on 
construction workers, homeowners, children and visitors.
Ask yourself the question: Would I build a school, day care center, a 
playground or, for that matter, a home on land where "municipal sludge" was 
applied without adequate testing?
The writer lives in Thomasville.