Sludge Watch ==> California- Nursery Products Locking Horns with Community

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin;

It is indeed interesting that Dan Avera and Jacqueline Adams, the Environmental Health Department staff of San Bernardino County never issued any Notices of Violation
despite the horrific odor, fly, dust complaints generated by the site.  These staff told me that the site didn't need to stop odor, flies, or dust...they just had to make some attempt to mitigate the problems.  

So when Nursery Products offered fly traps to their neighbors, that was enough of a control attempt to satisfy the County.  

When I looked through the hundreds of complaints about Nursery Products at the Env Health offices, there was no evidence of any investigation or follow up on the complaints.
When I asked the California Integrated Waste Management Board about this failure to follow up on complaints, they explained that only written mailed complaints counted as complaints in the State legislation.  Since there is a telephone complaint protocol in the County, I was told that none of the telephoned complaints were 'valid' complaints.

It means that phoning the County is like sending your complaint to a dead letter mail drop.  Note too, that the Environmental Health Department have explained that they have no intention of enforcing the Sewage Sludge Landspreading Ordinance.  So there will be no regulation of the material from the facility either.  Non enforcement seems to be something of a specialty with the Environmental Health Department when it comes to sludge.

Hinkly and Barstow residents need to understand up front that they can expect no enforcement or relief from San Bernardino County if this facility gets a foothold in the community.

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


http://www.desertdispatch.com/2006/115072249984106.html

Monday, June 19, 2006

Composter locking horns with community
By LEROY STANDISH Staff Writer 

Big rigs and truckers, tourists and antique stores, hungry travelers and a couple fast food joints, these and the Joshua trees in the distance are the sites that compose the intersection of highways 395 and 58 -- better known as Kramer Junction. 

The crossing could soon gain a reputation as the location of something vastly different: a 160-acre composting facility. Officially the proposed location is listed as the community of Hinkley, but its location is actually south of Highway 58, about eight miles west of Hinkley and 12 miles east of Kramer Junction. 

Already the proposal is drawing criticism from local residents. 

"It is just amazing how bad this thing is going to be," said Norman Diaz, husband, father of two and resident. "I don't need this facility upwind from me." 

He is not alone in his concerns about Nursery Products' efforts to gain county approval for the facility. Nearby is a bird sanctuary, several miles away is a school and scattered throughout the area are multiple residences and off-road trails. 

The proposed facility would accept 1,100 tons a day of human and green waste and tur n it into approximately 400,000 tons of composting materials a year for farmers throughout Southern Califor nia, according to the county's initial environmental study. 

Nursery Products efforts to open the plant -- named the Hawes facility in recognition of the for mer military Hawes training airfield less than a mile away -- is a direct result of the closing of its operations in Adelanto late last year. 

After opening in October, 2002, Adelanto residents began complaining of foul odors, school children complained of nausea, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (which has a sub-station next door to the former facility) filed suit over the fly ash covering power lines and the Adelanto City Council came under immense public pressure to oust the composter. 

Since closing its Adelanto facility Nursery Products execs have been searching for a new location. Newberry Springs was the first and now the focus has shifted to an area just outside of Kramer Junction. Depending on the speed of the county's permitting process the plant could open by early next year, company officials said. 

"We will be bringing in more waste than what we did in Adelanto," Jeff Meberg, managing partner of Nursery Products, said. "The average amount of trucks that will be bringing in sludge on a daily basis is around 45." 

He insists that the process is safe and is a necessity for the state. 

"There has been a lot of scientific studies that conclude the safety of biosolids," Meberg said. "Until the human body is incapable of not producing any waste you have to do something with it." 

Currently the plant is still in the initial stages of the approval process with the county. Public comment period for the environmental impact report -- originally set to expire in May -- has been extended to July 5. 

Numerous community meetings have been held on the subject and locals are attempting to lock arms to stop Nursery Products. 

"The idea of this facility being upwind of Hinkley and Hinkley School is extremely disturbing," Hinkley resident Jay Potter wrote in his response to the plant. "We feel that a giant pile of human waste that is generating billions of flies and a horrendous stench is unacceptable. Not to mention the possibility of contaminating our water even more than it already is." 

The Mojave Water Agency, in a letter dated June 9, states there is a potential that discharges from the proposed plant could pollute the Mojave River -- located 12 miles to the south -- and area ground water. In a letter to the county Land Use Services Department, Kirby Brill, general manager of the MWA, noted a report in the initial environmental study that two flood flow routes traverse the site and discharge into the Mojave River. 

"It is possible that the project could affect areas well downstream in addition to having potential for on-site water quality impacts," Brill wrote. 

Geoff Sweatt, senior consultant for Nursery Products, said that the composting facility proposed for Hinkley is an improved version of the plant in Adelanto and it will not have the same odor and fly problems. 

"They frankly took in the wrong kinds of things -- green waste -- they took too much of that in and the material had fly eggs on it," Sweatt said. "The fles blossomed and it did have an odor problem. So they stopped taking (curb side green waste, such as yard clippings) and the fly problem went away." 

The Adelanto facility was inspected 54 times in 36 months and no regulatory agency ever issued a violation, Sweatt said. 

Additionally, if the Hinkley facility wins approval it would create eight jobs and help the local economy, Meberg said. 

"Another issue is the accusation that this will be an LA and Orange county dump ground," Meberg said. "We took 17 percent of the biosolids from the Inland Empire." 

Now that the Adelanto facility is closed that waste is being diverted to Arizona, Meberg said. 

But residents like Diaz say there is a track record established by Nursery Products from its days in Adelanto and there are too many risks such a facility would bring to Kramer Junction and Hinkley for it to be approved. 

"I have thrown myself in front of this thing and I am not giving up. This is important to me that this does not go through," he said. "It is not out in the middle of nowhere as they would have you think."
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