Sludge Watch ==> Virginia- County Supervisors seek to ensure sludge ban

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab4.cfm?newsid=17132493&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=506086&rfi=8

Supervisors return to sludge
By: Monty Tayloe
08/30/2006

At their upcoming September 6 session, the Rappahannock County Board of 
Supervisors will plunge back into an old controversy, long flushed away: 
Sludge.


A sludge hauling company named Recyc Systems has informed the county that 
they are currently applying to the Virginia Department of Health for a 
permit to fertilize farmland in Rappahannock County with sludge, a process 
the supervisors banned 13 years ago. Now, changes to Virginia law have made 
that ban illegal, and the BOS will have to decide how to address the 
problem.


Sometimes referred to as biosolids, sludge is the solid matter that remains 
after wastewater has been treated. When the treatment process is done with 
it, sludge is generally either burned or treated to kill pathogens and 
hauled away to be used as a fertilizer on farmland.

Sludge is a cheap and effective fertilizer, but remains somewhat 
controversial because it can contain heavy metals and other contaminants 
unaffected by the treatment process, because as runoff it can pollute water 
ecosystems, and because it can smell. Virginia regulates these concerns 
through an extensive state permitting process, but opposition to sludge 
applied to farmland remains active.

In 1993 and 1994, the BOS and the county was submerged in a debate about the 
use of sludge on farmland in Rappahannock County. The county had a 
longstanding moratorium on sludge used on farmland in the county, and the 
supervisors held several public hearings on the possibility of permanent 
ban.

The supervisors heard testimony from DEQ experts, private farmers, and 
representatives of Bio-Grow, a sludge hauling company which transported and 
spread sludge from the Blue Plains treatment plant in Maryland on the fields 
of willing farmers. Bio-Grow has since changed its name to Recyc Systems, 
and is the author of the application prompting this month's agenda item. 
After the series of hearings, the supervisors voted to institute a ban on 
sludge use in Rappahannock County. This ban was followed by a lawsuit from 
four county farmers and Bio-Grow, challenging the legality of the ban. 
Rappahannock County won that lawsuit and the ban on the use of sludge on 
farmland in Rappahannock has remained on the books ever since.

However, in recent years, several other counties in Virginia were sued over 
sludge bans and lost, and their bans were struck down.

According to County Administrator John McCarthy, those later rulings changed 
state law, making general bans like Rappahannock County's illegal. In 
response to those rulings, the BOS held public hearings to discuss the 
creation of an ordinance that would allow but extensively monitor and 
regulate the use of sludge in Rappahannock. However, the discussed 
legislation was never passed.

"There were no imminent applications at the time, and there was some hope 
that the General Assembly might reverse the changes to the law and allow 
localities to ban {sludge use]," explained McCarthy, who added that public 
sentiment at the later hearings strongly supported the ban.

This month, with Recyc Systems notification that they intend to apply for a 
permit, the BOS will have to confront the question of sludge. According to 
McCarthy, the current ban is certain to be struck down in a court battle, 
and the Supervisors will have to create a method of regulating and 
monitoring its use that will comply with Virginia law.

Rappahannock News

Virginia