Sludge Watch ==> Environmentalists Fear Toxic Ash Decision may be Reversed

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Inside Cal/EPA

May 12, 2006

Vol. 17 No. 19

ENVIRONMENTALISTS FEAR DTSC WILL REVERSE BIOSOLIDS TOXICITY DECISION


Environmentalists fear the toxics department will soon reverse a recent 
finding that a specific biosolids substance applied to agricultural land is 
hazardous, in response to appeals by a prominent refinery, a southern 
California city and a trucking company. Environmentalists claim that if the 
department determines the waste to be non-hazardous, it could significantly 
increase the toxicity of farmland and groundwater contamination in 
agricultural areas.

The producers and haulers of the substance maintain it is non-hazardous and 
say they should be allowed to return to their previous management of the 
material. The substance has been applied for years as a soil applicator in 
Central Val-ley agricultural areas.

The substance at issue is made of fly ash, which consists of fine particles 
of ash produced by a BP oil refinery in southern California. This ash is 
trucked north to Kern County.

The city of Oxnard owns a sewage sludge processing facility in Kern County, 
where the ash is mixed with human and industrial sewage, also known as 
biosolids. The ash, when combined with the biosolids, allegedly kills many 
of pathogens in the material. This new mixture is then applied to nearby 
farmland and is also stored in massive stockpiles over a quarter of a mile 
long.

Since 1998, the city of Oxnard and USA Transport Inc., the trucking company 
that hauls the ash and also operates Oxnard's processing facility, had 
operated under a permit to apply the biosolids in Kern County.

After complaints from local officials over the size of biosolids stockpiles, 
the Department of Toxic Substances Control in January investigated. DTSC 
told the responsible parties that the substances were in fact hazardous. 
DTSC stated the activities taking place were in violation of hazardous waste 
control laws, and that the Kern County facility is not an authorized 
hazardous waste treatment or disposal facility.

The county Feb. 14 revoked the facility's permit; the facility was ordered 
to remove stockpiled biosolids to a haz-ardous waste dump.

USA Transport appealed the actions, and requested DTSC use a different 
testing protocol than the department originally used to determine the 
toxicity of the substance, according to sources.
A USA transport source said this week that DTSC has agreed to return to the 
Kern County site late this week and retest the substances. The source said 
DTSC will administer two test procedures -- U.S. EPA test 9030, which the 
de-partment used to declare the substances hazardous; and 9045, which the 
trucking company requested.

The trucking company source is confident that after the latter test is 
completed, the substance will prove to be non-hazardous. The source claimed 
the only reason DTSC got involved was due to a solicitation from Kern 
County, which is determined to remove biosolids from the region. DTSC said 
"they will try both tests at the site and make a determina-tion," the source 
said. "It's a situation where for 23 years it had not been a hazardous waste 
-- when these tests are done, it will show it's non-hazardous."

USA Transport has had to suddenly overhaul its activities into a hazardous 
waste operation, which has been very costly, the source said. In addition, 
BP has been "hounding" DTSC to reassess the biosolids, the source said.

An environmentalist charged DTSC staff has already decided to rely on the 
9045 test and plans to backpedal from its earlier stance that the material 
is hazardous. DTSC "is doing an underground regulation to let them off the 
hook," the source said, claiming the 9045 test will put the substance's 
acidity level just under the threshold deemed hazardous, the source claimed.
Environmentalists and some officials have argued that statewide refinery 
wastes, such as the fly ash substance, are full of heavy metals that 
contaminate groundwater. These substances could now be held to a lesser 
standard in the future if DTSC were to deem the substance non-hazardous, the 
environmentalist claimed.

BP and city of Oxnard officials did not return phone calls by press time.

A DTSC spokesman said the testing and waste characterization of mixed 
stockpiles of this magnitude presents sig-nificant difficulties. "It was 
understood at the time of the department's initial characterization that 
only a very small por-tion of the ash pile had been sampled and that further 
sampling of the ash pile and a thorough scientific analysis of the sampling 
data would be undertaken to provide a more accurate characterization," the 
spokesman said.

To facilitate the timely removal of the pile pursuant to the Kern County 
order while further sampling and data analysis is occurring, DTSC has 
required the responsible parties to sample each truckload of departing ash 
under a more stringent and reliable testing protocol and EPA-approved 
method, the spokesman said. "The sampling from this method will be analyzed 
by the department on a weekly basis over the next few weeks to insure that 
the ongoing sampling pro-tocols and procedures characterize the ash pile 
reliably and accurately and are protective of public health and the 
envi-ronment."