Sludge Watch ==> Synagro - plan to stockpile sludge compost ill-received in Kern County Calif

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Here we have some ole' sludge industry 'bait and switch'.
Synagro has a permit that only allows 7 days of stockpiled sludge compost in 
their new startup facility in Kern County...and now they want to stockpile 
the 'sludge compost'  longer.

Here is a hint...sludge 'compost' doesn't really compost that easily.  Why 
even the City of LA folks admit it sometimes takes months and months to 
compost and cure.  No one really wants sludge compost and they certainly 
don't want stuff fresh from the heap that has met only the minimum federal 
sludge compost standards.  That is if the Region 9 EPA  staff are even 
bothering to enforce the sludge compost minimum standards as set out in the 
503 regs. They have been lax in the past in this regard.

I'm sure its hard to find places to cure a heapa stinkin' half-cooked sludge 
compost.  Poor Synagro.
So much sludge...so little time....
....................................................................

Sludge plans shift
Company to ask Kern planners to extend period of time that it can stockpile 
compost
BY JAMES BURGER, Californian staff writer
e-mail: jburger at bakersfield.com
Thursday, Dec 28 2006 9:50 PM


Even before the giant new sludge plant outside Taft is up and running, its 
owners want to change the rules.

Industry leader Synagro's composting facility will start taking treated 
human and industrial sewage in the next few weeks.

By March, it's expected to be running at full steam, taking chipped green 
waste from the city of Bakersfield and other sources, mixing it with treated 
sewage sludge and turning out compost, said Synagro facility manager John 
Goodwin.

But the facility may open to a chorus of opposition.

Synagro is asking to modify the permit that allows it to operate, a 
regulatory hurdle that Goodwin said could cramp production ability.

The facility can currently only stockpile finished compost for seven days, 
according to Bill O'Rullian of the Kern County Environmental Health Services 
division.

O'Rullian said the company has asked to increase that stockpile hold period 
to three months.

Goodwin said the issue will go before the Kern County Planning Commission 
for a hearing in January.

The request for a change to the company's operations has gotten Taft City 
Councilman Cliff Thompson steaming mad.

"They've promised us that this composting would not be there for more than 
seven days," he said.

He feels like the company has gone back on its word to him.

"They've lied to the community and they've tried to buy their way in," he 
said. "I've never supported it. I'll never support it. I feel they made a 
deal and they need to stick to it."

Goodwin said Synagro never promised never to ask for an expansion of its 
stockpile hold period. The company needs the time, he said, because it must 
move most of the compost it creates out of Kern County in order to comply 
with Measure E, the county's sludge ban.

Thompson was one of a group of people who opposed a 2005 Synagro request for 
a $35 million low-interest loan to build the composting facility.

The Kern County Board of Supervisors rejected the request.

But it didn't stop construction of the facility, which had been given an 
operation permit by the county more than two years before.

Goodwin said he understands Kern County's sensitivity to sludge.

"Biosolids are a touchy issue up here," he said. "For the people who are 
against land application of biosolids, this type of facility is the answer."

Kern County voters overwhelmingly passed Measure E, a ban on the application 
of sludge on farmland, in June.

Measure E, Goodwin said, will prevent his company from marketing their 
compost for spreading on Kern County farmland.

A U.S. District Court judge has issued an injunction that prevents Measure E 
from stopping land application of sludge by the city of Los Angeles and 
Orange County.

But that injunction does not suspend Measure E for any other company or 
agency -- including Synagro, Goodwin said.

That ban makes the additional time to stockpile compost critical for 
Synagro, Goodwin said, because the company needs time to transport their 
product to markets outside Kern County.

The plan is to sell the product in Southern California and, locally, to 
companies that will bag the compost for resale, Goodwin said.

For now the facility will only be accepting about 45 percent of the 400,000 
tons a year of treated waste it is allowed to take under permits, Goodwin 
said.

Goodwin said compost will be mixed in an enclosed building with a paved 
floor and air quality control systems. Compost will be cured on fully lined 
asphalt and concrete pads.

"This is not a 
flatten-out-a-field-and-do-windrow-composting-out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere 
deal," Goodwin said.

http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/91636.html