Sludge Watch ==> Pennsylvania - Health Concerns Motivate State and Local Management of Sludge

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

>From Reading, PA Eagle, 6-7-06.

Local Unease in PA Town over Sludge Fuels Debate -
Suppliers and Farmers Favor State Rules That Govern the Use of the Sewage 
Material on Farmland.
A County Advisory Council Seeks Answers to Health Concerns.

For years people have debated whether sewage sludge is a cheap and safe 
fertilizer for farms or an environmental hazard that can make people sick. 
Along with that comes another question: What should municipalities do when 
residents are worried about the effects of sludge?

Last year, 49 Berks County farms used sludge, an end product of sewage 
treatment, to fertilize fields. Some townships have tried to impose local 
regulations, but sludge suppliers say those efforts sometimes exceed what is 
allowed by state law. According to two court decisions, one from the U.S. 
District Court and the other from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, only the 
state Department of Environmental Protection can set rules for sludge use. 
Sometimes you have these municipalities that pass an ordinance that 
restricts the business in a way that makes no scientific sense," said Alvin 
L. Thomas, general counsel for Synagro, a Houston-based sludge supplier to 
31 Berks farms. "At the end of the day, it's DEP's rules that have to be 
followed."

Greenwich Township's ordinance charges fees for each ton of sludge spread, 
but none of those fees are currently being collected because Synagro is 
challenging the township's authority to levy them. Exeter Township has had 
an ordinance since 1997 that requires a $5 fee for each ton of sludge spread 
and a $500 annual permit fee for anyone who wants to apply it.Maidencreek 
Township is the latest Berks County municipality to draft an ordinance on 
sludge use.Township Solicitor Eugene Orlando Jr. said the proposed ordinance 
does not impose stricter standards than the state, but it would give the 
township enforcement power.

David W. Tuttle, who uses sludge on his two farms in Oley and Hereford 
townships, said he doesn't think farms should be subject to local 
ordinances. He said his permits from the DEP are 2 inches thick. "I wish 
people would educate themselves on what we do and how regulated it is," 
Tuttle said. Lloyd C. Zook said buying regular fertilizer for 160 acres he 
farms in Oley Township would cost $12,000 per year. The sludge is free. "We 
get the fertilizer benefit from it," said his son, Dwight A. Zook, who also 
uses sludge on land he farms in Oley. "They (sludge suppliers) get a place 
to put it."

The state Department of Health is studying whether sludge can harm people, 
but it hasn't reached any conclusions. The Cornell Waste Management 
Institute at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., however, says that sludge 
contains disease causing bacteria, cancer-causing chemicals and high levels 
of metals such as mercury and lead. Brenda K. Loeb, a nurse in the Kutztown 
School District, is part of a Berks County Environmental Advisory Council 
committee that is studying the effects of sludge. Loeb wants the county to 
study air quality and asthma cases near farms where sludge is spread. She 
also would like sludge use to be limited to Class A sludge, which is treated 
to eliminate pathogens such as salmonella and fecal coliform. Loeb lives 
near a Greenwich Township field where sludge is applied. She said neighbors 
are subjected to a nauseating odor and risks for asthma. "It gives you a 
really bad headache," Loeb said. "It smells like old blood."

Thomas G. Power, chairman of the advisory council committee, said Berks 
County is studying residents' concerns about sludge and ways to address 
them. The committee wants signs placed to inform people about sludge sites, 
townships to be told when it's applied, and neighbors to be notified once a 
year. Other options include licensing haulers and testing and regulating 
sludge that is spread. Last summer, a group called the Environmental Action 
Committee proposed that Berks County draft its own sludge-regulating 
ordinance, something Power's committee hasn't decided to do. "If we pass an 
ordinance, we want it to be something we can enforce," he said.

Mark Reider, Synagro's technical services director for Pennsylvania, said 
the company serves a 40-acre farm that covers three townships: Longswamp in 
Berks and Upper Macungie and Lower Macungie in Lehigh County. "Would you 
like to tell me that if all three of these townships pass an ordinance, 
which one should I follow?" he said. Sludge contains less bacteria than the 
animal manure a lot of farmers use for fertilizer, Reider said, adding that 
Class A sludge is mixed with mulch and topsoil sold at home-improvement 
stores.

William E. Toffey, executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Biosolids 
Association, said he doesn't blame municipalities for adopting local 
regulations as a tool to deal with residents' concerns. The real problem, he 
said, is that residents, farmers and sludge suppliers often don't 
communicate."We don't tell people what it is," Toffey said. "We don't tell 
people where it's coming from. People in the community say, 'This stuff is 
awful. How can you do this to us?' " And that, he said, is not something an 
ordinance can fix.


Sludgewatch Admin

What Mr Toffey misses is that while the smell of sludge might be one's first 
observation, knowing more about sludge and where it comes from does nothing 
to allay one's concerns.  To know sludge is to fear it, because it contains 
unnamed and unquantified pathogens and contaminants.  What is reassuring 
about that?

Since this cheap disposal of toxic material to the soil has been promoted by 
the EPA, an organization that has no capacity to provide monitoring or 
enforcement, certainly citizens are begging other levels of government step 
in and provide better regulatory management.