Sludge Watch ==> Beaumont Calif - Sludge Stench raised in South Coast Air Quality Meetings

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

http://www.pe.com/localnews/sanbernardino/stories/PE_News_Local_B_bsmell26.3de1f6c.html


Meeting to address hitches in air quality

BEAUMONT: It includes sessions with state and local officials. Residents are 
urged to attend.


12:12 AM PDT on Wednesday, July 26, 2006

By GAIL WESSON
The Press-Enterprise


State air quality officials are hitting the road to ask residents from 
Yucaipa to Banning whether they have concerns about air quality.

Although the South Coast Air Quality Management District has put on town 
hall meetings elsewhere in the region, this is the first in Beaumont, 
district spokeswoman Tina Cherry said by phone.

The meeting Thursday at the Beaumont Civic Center will include presentations 
by district and local officials, and time for questions. Cherry said 
officials want to hear from residents of the Yucaipa, Calimesa, Beaumont and 
Banning areas.

Pollution sources in the region range from traffic on roads and rails to 
stationary sources such as chicken ranches and wastewater treatment plants.

The district speakers will talk about how air quality affects public health 
and what residents can do to help clean up the air. The district is the air 
pollution control agency for all of Orange County and the urban portions of 
Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Officials with the district and the city of Beaumont will discuss proposed 
upgrades on the wastewater treatment plant.

Beaumont reached an agreement with the district last month over two 
public-nuisance complaints made in December and February about odors from 
the city's wastewater treatment plant, Cherry said. The plant is on West 
Fourth Street, south of Interstate 10.

Both complaints were related to the handling of sewage sludge, according to 
the notices of violation. To resolve them, the city is building a new 
conveyor system and loading sludge differently, Cherry said.

"We have changed our operational procedures to address that and we're 
working with AQMD," Dave Dillon, the city's economic development director, 
said by phone.

Improved methods to handle sludge include putting it in a covered bin, he 
said.

The city also plans to set up a phone number that people can call to report 
odors. The treatment plant processes just under 2 million gallons of sewage 
a day and has a capacity of 4 million gallons.

Reach Gail Wesson at 951-846-2304 or gwesson at PE.com