Sludge Watch ==> Community Featured in Film 'Erin Brockovich' Now Threatened by Sewage Sludge

[Maureen Reilly]

For Immediate Release:  December 7, 2006

 

For More Information Contact:

            Kassie Siegel: (951) 961-7972 (cell)

            Norman Diaz: (760) 963-3585 (cell)

            Jane Williams: (661) 510-3412

            Ingrid Brostrom: (661) 720-9140 x.302

            

 
Community Featured in Film 'Erin Brockovich' Now Threatened by Sewage Sludge
 
Environmental Justice and Conservation Groups Appeal Planning Commission
Decision to Allow Sewage Sludge Facility Near Hinkley
 

SAN BERNARDINO, CA ­ Today, the Center for Biological Diversity,
Helphinkley.org, Desert Citizens Against Pollution, and the Center on Race,
Poverty and the Environment filed an appeal with the San Bernardino County
Board of Supervisors seeking to overturn the Planning Commission¹s approval
of an open-air sewage sludge treatment facility near the community of
Hinkley, California.   The proposed project would entail over 500 daily
vehicle trips to truck up to 2,000 tons of sewage sludge per day from up to
200 miles away in the Inland Empire to this small desert community and
spreading it out across 160 acres of pristine desert habitat. The proposed
project would process 400,000 tons of waste per year.

 

The project would increase traffic, air pollution, greenhouse gases, VOCs
and noxious odors as well as potentially introducing non-native invasive
weeds, impacting water quality, increasing wildfire danger and destroying
habitat occupied by the threatened Desert Tortoise and other imperiled
species.  The County refused to consider requiring an enclosed facility and
failed to adequately address the many environmental impacts of the project.

 

Sewage sludge contains many dangerous pathogens, metals, pesticides and
fungus that can cause disease in both humans and animals. 'For our local
citizens, especially the young and old, who already have compromised health
issues, this project adds insult to injury,' said Norman Diaz of
Helphinkley.org, a local citizen¹s group fighting to keep the sludge out of
their town.   The citizens of Hinkley have been dealing with the toxic
legacy of hexavalent chromium 6 contamination for decades; their plight was
portrayed in the Hollywood film Erin Brockovich.  'It is completely
irresponsible of the County to approve this project less than 8 miles
directly upwind from our local elementary school that my own kids and 350
other children attend and less than 3 miles upwind from some local
residences. They are rushing this project through without proper
environmental review and public input.'

 

³The proposed project represents obsolete technology for dealing with sewage
sludge,² said Kassie Siegel, Climate, Air, and Energy Program Director for
the Center for Biological Diversity.  ³The County refused to even consider
available state of the art techniques to reduce greenhouse gas and other air
pollution as required by law.  The County needs to enter the 21st Century
with regard to its management of these wastes.²

 

The groups are also concerned that the County is dumping this sewage sludge
project on this small community without adequate public notice or any public
approval. The County refused to provide any information about the project in
Spanish where approximately 40% of the residents are Spanish speakers and
many requested information be provided in Spanish.

 

'California law requires that the public be informed and able to participate
in the planning process. The County¹s refusal to accommodate the local
Spanish speaking community is indefensible,' said Ingrid Brostrom, attorney
with the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment.   Brostrom noted that
a similar project was located near Kettleman City, a small town in the
Central Valley with a majority of Spanish speaking citizens.  'In that case
the community was also shut out of the planning process but once the impacts
of the facility became known to local residents the County had to shut it
down,' she said.  Another facility operated by Nursery Products, LLC, in
Adelanto was also shut down due to air pollution, health, odor complaints
and many permit violations.

 

As Jane Williams of Desert Citizens Against Pollution, a group that has
fought off many waste dumps in the desert, emphasized, ³The California
deserts are not empty spaces waiting to be filled with the trash of the more
populated areas of the State. These fragile and beautiful lands are home to
many people, to wildlife, and our cultural heritage.  We are appealing the
Planning Commission decision in the hope that the San Bernardino County
Board of Supervisors won't make the same mistakes here that were made
elsewhere. This project is both badly designed and in the wrong place, the
County should not let it go forward.
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