Sludge Watch ==> Virginia gives ok on sludge permits for fall applicatiion - Isle of Wight

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=105629&ran=25925


State OKs permits for sludge on farms in Isle of Wight
By LINDA MCNATT, The Virginian-Pilot
June 7, 2006



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY — The state Health Department has approved permits to 
spread sewage sludge on agricultural fields in the county.


For farmers who submitted the applications, it’s good news. They say the 
sludge, or biosolids, from a Northern Virginia sewage treatment plant is 
good for the soil, and it saves them from having to buy commercial 
fertilizers.

Recyc Systems Inc. of Remington picks up the sludge from the Blue Plains 
Waste Water Treatment Plant, operated by the District of Columbia; trucks in 
the treated mixture of industrial, commercial and residential waste; and 
spreads it for free.

The approvals cover about 492 acres. Permits were requested to cover 530 
acres.




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“This is one step for farmers who do want to use this alternative 
fertilizer,” said Rachel Morris, rural economic development manager in Isle 
of Wight County. “But the farmers will be out there, watching to see how 
this first application goes.”

The sights and smells of biosolids should appear locally in late fall, 
according to Morris. State regulations prohibit it from being spread while 
crops are still in the fields. The county has adopted an ordinance to cover 
the application process, and an environmental planner has been put in charge 
of overseeing the operation.

Opponents campaigned to educate the public about the hazards they believe 
biosolids hold for the environment and people with health problems.

“We would have liked for the permits to have been denied, but we’re not 
surprised,” said Sharon Hart of Carrollton, whose group includes the Isle of 
Wight Citizens Association and the Carrollton Civic League.

Hart said her group asked the state to halt applications until new studies 
can be conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency. The latest studies, 
she said, were completed in the late 1980s and don’t include some chemicals 
and pathogens that the sludge of today could contain.

State regulations are strict, said Kelly Lobanov, a spokeswoman for the 
state Health Department. The department didn’t approve an applicati on for 
fields near Cypress Creek, an upscale subdivision near Smithfield . And if 
problems arise once the process begins, the state wants to know about them, 
Lobanov said .

In 2004, about 232,000 tons of biosolids were applied to roughly 50,500 
acres in 48 Virginia counties. Farmers in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake also 
use the waste.


Reach Linda McNatt at (757) 222-5561 or linda.mcnatt at pilotonline.com