Sludge Watch ==> Hinkley California - Community Meets to Unite Against Nursery Products Sludge

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

http://www.desertdispatch.com/2006/114951187513912.html

Community meets to unite against Nursery Products


       By GUS LAMBERT Staff Writer



HINKLEY — It was Friday night in Hinkley and more than 200 residents 
converged on the firehouse, not for a dance, not for an evening social 
event, but to gather and organize a unified community effort of opposition 
to Nursery Products LLC. plans for trucking sewage sludge and other treated 
biological waste onto a local dumping site.

Resident Norman Diaz kicked off the meeting by summarizing the current 
environmental impact review process and the need for everyone to submit 
comments during the open public comment period that expires on June 8.

In response to multiple complains about insufficient notification and the 
poorly publicized meeting at the Hinkley Elementary School two weeks ago, 
San Bernardino County representative for Bill Postmus, Robert Smith, stepped 
forward and said he will ask to get the clock reset on that issue.
“I will ask them to reopen the process for a new 30-day period,” Smith said.

Diaz called on everyone opposed to Nursery Products’ plan for the Hinkley 
area to organize and form committees to address each specific issue: Fire 
containment, traffic increase, the effects on roadways, biological 
contamination, wildlife impact, impact on local agricultural business and 
other similar concerns.

“This is the only way we will defeat this effort to dump their garbage on 
us,” he said.
“That was the way we beat them in Newberry Springs’” said resident John 
Coffey. He said it took more than a year of unified community effort to make 
Nursery Products abandon a similar plan there.

And Smith agreed. “The board of supervisors can not stop this project; they 
have to follow the permitting procedures,” he said. “

Coffey also noted that Barstow residents and everyone living downwind of 
this project should be aware of it and participate in the process.

Tracy Creason, county project manager said “It’s very important that 
residents participate in the (environmental impact review) process because 
the impact of this type of project is unique to the people that live here.”

People at the meeting complained to Smith and Creason that the county did 
not have answers to many important questions, such as the exact type of 
waste that will be dumped, where it will come from and what measures will be 
used to monitor that it is the quality and quantity approved for disposal.

Diaz said that his Web site:

http://www.norman.locations.org/hinkley/

has a link to the county site for infor mation about Nursery Products 
proposal and an electronic public comment form.
He said that his site will have infor mational update along with future 
meeting time and locations.
Smith said the environmental impact report will be available on-line when it 
is completed and will also be available for review in local libraries.


///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Sludgewatch Admin:

Below are just  a few of the concerns that the neighbors have raised.

Issues that need to be addressed by the EIR for the proposed
Nursery Products Sewage Sludge Biosolids and Greenwaste Composting Site in  
Hinkley/Barstow

Submit to Carrie Hyke San Bernardino County Advanced Planning 
chyke at lusd.sbcounty.gov    by June 8, 2006
_________________________________________


Dear Ms Carrie Hyke,

This is a response to the Notice of Preparation of an Environmental Impact 
Report (EIR)
On Nursery Products in regard to the scope of the proposed EIR.

The scope proposed in the Initial Study is inadequate to adequately capture 
the issues related to the proposed enormous sludge compost facility near 
Hinkley. Please incorporate the following issues into the EIR.


Project needs accurate and complete description of the intended activities. 
This Initial Study is vague about amounts of material, equipment, water use, 
number of trucks and composting technique/technology.  It is hard to 
accurately study something if you don’t know what ‘something’ is.

1.	Water needs at the site need to be examined.  Water is required for 
firefighting, staff sanitation washing, truck washing, dust control, and 
keeping the compost moist and alive. Where will the water come from and how 
will the contaminated wastewater be managed?  Without any power to the site, 
how will pumps be operated?


2.	There needs to be a study of what greenwastes will be allowed on site and 
the impact of vector like flies? Will grass clippings be allowed? How about 
the chipped treated board that is already dumped near or on the proposed 
site?  Is that going into the compost?

3.	Air Emissions from the sludge and equipment on the site and transport 
trucks need to be modeled for a whole spectrum of gases and particulate.

4.	Needs a work study to ensure adequate equipment to do the job.

5.	Berms  around the site– what are they to be made of?  What toxins are in 
the berms?
Is it going to be made of  soil tailings from the Adelanto TPS Technologies 
contaminated soil centre, like the Adelanto berm?

6.	Sludge arriving at the site: how wet, how dry?  How is it treated to 
reduce pathogens before it arrives? Can material that isn't even Class B 
sludge come to the site? What standards?

Since the diseases in the sludge can blow off-site, can leach into the water 
table, that can run off in stormwater, we need to know what contaminants are 
in the sludge, and then evaluate their environmental fate.

7.	 How will this impact health of endangered species, wildlife, flora, 
livestock?

8.	How will the bioaerosols blowing off the site impact people (particularly 
children and those with weakened immune system)? What is the nature of the 
pathogens windborne from the site?  Are the bioaerosols  likely to spread 
antibiotic resistant forms of disease? What are the implications for people 
and for wildlife ?

We need to study how sick the people in the surrounding communities are 
already. Once this community profile is established it needs to be modelling 
how the  additonal windborne pathogns and PM10 and emissions from the site 
and the trucks will impact their already compromised health conditions.

9.	Vector   - how will flies be controlled at this site (after the Adelanto 
mess)?

10.	Rare and Endangered Species – what will be the impact on the Desert 
Tortoise, the Mojave Ground Squirrel, and the Burrowing Owl?  This is prime 
Desert Tortoise habitat..and there is very little such habitat left in 
California. Since the dust and diseases from the sewage sludge are likely to 
be windblown in a huge radius of the site, what will protect the Tortoise, 
who is known to suffer from respiratory diseases?

There is a concern that this site could destroy this prime habitat for the 
Desert Tortoise utterly.  The whole character of this desert ecology could 
change if developers didn't have to yield to the needs of endangered 
species....leaving the door open to many kinds of environment- degrading 
industries or developments in this otherwise protected part of California.

Winds blow in all directions from the site, and it could impact the whole 
area.

11.	Fire hazard – how will fires be handled…what roads need to be built, 
what water resources on hand?  How will they pump water with no power lines 
into the facility?

12.	What kind of compost pad will be required and will it protect 
groundwater? Will the sludge and greenwaste be stored on an impermeable pad? 
  Will it be composted on an impermeable pad? Will the curing compost be 
stored on an impermeable pad? How long will the windrows be?  How many 
windrows? Will there be actimomycetes used as composting agents?  How will 
composting agents be stored so as not to become windborne?

13.	Will the roads to the compost site, in the compost site, and around the 
compost site be paved as a dust mitigation measure?

14.	What technique will be used for composting the sludge and greenwaste? 
Will the piles be turned in accordance with the composting requirements in 
Title 14 and the Part 503.32 regs?

15.	In California, new projects are supposed to adopt Best Available 
Technologies.  Open air sludge composting is not a best technology.  The 
South Coast Air Quality Monitoring District no longer allows commecial open 
air composting sites.  The EIR needs to look at Best Available Technologies 
for mitigating negative impacts.  Will there be a building enclosing the 
compost site with air filter pollution controls?

16.	What effect will the site have on odors and truck traffic? Will tourists 
past the site be troubled by traffic jams from overturned trucks and odor 
and flies?  If a truck overturns on Highway 58, will fire and amulance be 
able to get around the overturned spilled truck to respond to emergencies 
further down the highway?

17.	With the millions of truck miles traveled by the sludge haulers, how 
many sludge trucks will turn over on the highway? How many sludge spills 
will need to be cleaned up?
How many people will be injured? How many people will die?

18.  Since Nursery Products is a Limited Liability company, will there be 
enough financial surety set in place to remediate the site if the sludge 
site is abandonned? Will there be enough money if there are severe adverse 
health or environmental impacts and a class action lawsuit (like the Hinkley 
  PG&E Erin Brockevich lawsuit) is successful?

19.  Since the proposed facility is so enormous, where will the 'product' 
from the site go? Will it be deposited around the high desert to further 
impact the sensitive desert ecology?  This kind of nutrient rich, heavy 
metal contaminated, pharmaceutical laden, chemical laden soil matrix is not 
native to the desert.  The delicate desert ecology needs to be protected 
from use of this kind of compost material.  This needs to be studied in the 
EIR.

20. Cultural Resources – There is every likelihood that there will be native 
artifacts at this site, since it is near the shores of Harper Lake. This 
ancient water body had shorelines that  expanded and contracted over the 
centuries, so parts of the site are likely to contain artifacts and needs to 
be examined.


There needs to be a properly notified public meeting on the Scoping of this 
EIR, since the San Bernardino website misdirected the public to a completely 
different EIR for over three weeks of the 30 day comment period.  No wonder 
there were so few people at the County led public meeting.

There may not be enough money allocated to the project to cover all the 
areas that need to be studied in the EIR... so more funds may be required.


.............................................................

From: Doug Olson (Adelanto, California)     To: Dr David L Lewis
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 8:13 PM       Subject: Sewage Sludge 
Serious Problem

Dear Dr. Lewis,
I have read a lot about you and a lot about sewage sludge only after the 
fact that a co-composting plant moved in about 1 mile south of where I 
lived. Adelanto, Ca 92301.  The owner said he is a Green Waste Facility and 
it is called Nursery Products. How misleading.   The facility started Aug, 
2002.
For the past year I had been having dizzy spells, problems breathing and 
bleeding sores on my arms and some on my face. I had been to my doctors 
several times and to the E.R. They never could find anything wrong, they 
would say it's probably stress go home and relax. I also ended up with a 
severe sinus infection that wouldn’t go away with antibiotics and flushing 
my nose with sterile saline. I was scheduled for sinus surgery (which I 
never had done) and then they thought it could be anxiety with my breathing 
problems they recommended some medication for that, I never got it. They did 
give me meclazine for my dizziness.

I never put all my symptoms together with the strong fertilizer/ammonia 
smell I was smelling usually at night, until an article in the newspaper and 
a council meeting on Nov 5, 03. Then things got worse and the smell got 
stronger and on Nov 23, 03 I was pumping gas at our local circle K, the 
smell was so strong it made you gag by the time I got home my face felt like 
it was on fire (like a severe sun burn). I went to urgent care the next day, 
the Doctor told me to get out of Adelanto for a few weeks until my symptoms 
cleared up. I wish I had listened.

Things got even worse on Jan 16, 04 my blood work came back with slightly 
high liver enzymes which is consistent with Toxins in your body (I don’t 
drink or smoke) Then on Jan 20, 04 I had a chest x-ray done it should a 
black spot on my lungs. The doctor sent it out to a specialist to read it 
and I still don’t know what it is. That is all it took, I went home pack my 
clothes, the dog and came to stay with my mom.  I didn’t think I was going 
to make my 40 birthday on Jan 31, 04.  On Jan 30, 04 I ended up at urgent 
care because I was wheezing so bad and could barely breath. They gave me a 
breathing treatment and a strong antibiotic and entex. They said I had 
pneumonia/bronchitis. I found out that this is what most of the people are 
diagnosed with.

There were over 200 people at the council meeting Nov 5, 04. Even young kids 
spoke to the council telling them they are so sick they can’t go to school. 
So this is when I started doing my research and calling and e-mailing every 
elected official I could find, they all told me it’s not their problem it is 
a city problem. I can’t believe the mentality of these  people when you talk 
to them, they are all in Denial or getting paid big bucks.

I know they know how harmful this is, there was a 65 page report from the 
South Coast Air Quality Management District telling how dangerous a facility 
like this is. When I told Ron Clark at the Mojave Desert Air Quality 
Management District (which is our district) about the report it is no longer 
on the web-site. I don’t know why it was on there in the first place, but I 
am glad I saved it to disk.

We don’t know where to turn for help, I joined the Sierra Club hoping for 
support. If you could lead us in the right direction it would be greatly 
appreciated.

I can be reached at (760)241-4652 or E-mail me at: olsmer at msn.com




There is a lot more to this and a lot that the people of Adelanto have been 
through concerning this. All we get is the run around.

I will e-mail some of the letters and newspaper articles.

Thank You,
for your time

Doug Olson


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Read letter to Doug Olson after review of his CDC complaint by
Tracy Barreau Environmental Health Investigations Branch /

www.ehib.org/cma/projects/NurseryLetter.pdf