Sludge Watch ==> Virginia - Husband pleads for sludge reprieve on behalf of wife - cancer patient

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

The News & Advance, Lynchburg, Va.


May 12, 2006 Friday

Biosolids delay due to couple
Blair Goldstein, The News & Advance, Lynchburg, Va.


May 12--2006

In unusual decision this week to delay spreading biosolids on a Campbell 
County pasture came minutes after a phone call between a concerned neighbor 
and the president of a waste-hauling company.

Worried about how the smell of treated sewage sludge would affect his sick 
wife, Dale Ellington had spent the past several days calling, faxing and 
sending letters to state, local and company officials, pleading with them to 
halt the shipment.

Two days before the biosolids were set to arrive, Ellington picked up his 
phone and heard the president of Nutri-Blend Inc. on the line.

Ellington told John Simons that his wife, Georgia, was sick with cancer, 
sensitive to odors and living only half a mile from the 130-acre tract ready 
to receive 100 truckloads of biosolids that had been scheduled to arrive as 
early as today.

"He offered to put me and Georgia into a hotel for two or three days -- I 
told him this is not good enough," said Ellington.

"I said, "why don't you just let the Lord guide you on what to do about 
this?'"

Dale Ellington said he hung up his phone and prayed.

Simons said in an interview Thursday that he was moved by the conversation.
"It was the way Mr. Ellington presented himself to me and the conversation 
we had about the cancer his wife has," said Simons.

"It's just the condition he said her health was in and it just worried her 
and tore her nerves all to pieces, and he asked me if I would consider 
giving her a 12-month rest period."

Minutes after hanging up the phone on Wednesday, Simons called Dale 
Ellington back and said he had decided to hold off on delivering biosolids 
to the Hickory Creek Road pasture for at least a year.
If Simons had not made that decision, Robert Hicks, director of the Virginia 
Department of Health's office of envi-ronmental health services, said the 
health department would not have intervened.
Hicks said on Thursday that the health department was satisfied with the 
distance the Ellingtons live from the pas-tureland and the number trees in 
between.

"Even if the permit is out there, we can look and see if we want to remove a 
field or change a buffer distance," said Hicks.

"The buffers were already appropriate in the Ellingtons' case."

Simons said the year setback is one of the longest delivery delays he has 
issued in the more than 35 years he has run the Richmond-based company. But, 
he said Nutri-Blend often works with community members to be a "good 
neighbor."

He said the company has delayed delivery to avoid an outdoor wedding or an 
upcoming funeral. He said each deci-sion is made on a case-by-case basis.

Simons said the safety of the biosolids was not a factor in his decision.

Charles Hooks, with the Virginia Biosolids Council, an organization 
representing municipal producers of biosolids and waste haulers, said the 
company's decision should not be interpreted as a sign that biosolids are 
not safe.

"This is certainly not unusual for the company to be responsive to 
neighbors' concerns," said Hooks.
"This is not in any way an acknowledgement that there are health effects of 
biosolids."
Simons said he still plans to spread biosolids on the Campbell County tract.
"I will not withdraw my permits because it's beneficial to the farmers and 
the farmers want it," he said.

The Ellingtons are not the first to argue that health concerns should be a 
factor in where biosolids are spread.

In Prince Edward County, Janice Buchholz said she became sick last winter 
after biosolids were spread on a farm across from her home. She has been 
reaching out to neighbors and elected officials to stop future applications.

She said people should not have to work so hard to protect their health.

"[Mr. Ellington] had to call Nutri-Blend to get it stopped," said Buchholz. 
"It should have been stopped by the Vir-ginia Department of Health. This is 
a health issue -- [The health department doesn't] care that a woman is dying 
that vomits from odors, and they want to put that stuff down a half a mile 
from her home. What does that say? They don't care."

Buchholz was diagnosed with chemical exposure about 10 days after biosolids 
were spread near her home. She sent doctors' letters that documented her 
illness to Nutri-Blend and the company then promised not to spread biosolids 
on the land adjacent to Buchholz's home as long as she lives there.
She said she is grateful for the waste-hauling company's decision in her 
neighborhood and the Ellingtons', but does not think residents should have 
to work so hard to protect their health.
Katherine V. Nichols, director of the Virginia Department of Health's 
Central Virginia Health District, said the agency is not indifferent to 
neighbors' concerns.

Nichols said she has been working with the Ellingtons for about two years, 
communicating the couple's health con-cerns with the state health 
department's headquarters.
"I think I never implied that anybody was perfectly safe or anybody was 
perfectly protected, but a half-mile dis-tance with a significant grove of 
trees is significant," she said. "It's different from being 100 feet from 
the property."

"I think everybody who deals with this information would say we don't have 
enough information to say it's not safe and we don't have information to say 
it's perfectly safe."
Nutri-Blend has had a permit to spread biosolids on the Campbell County 
pastureland since last July. The land, owned by G.D. Gilliam, would have 
been the first Campbell County property to receive biosolids.

Biosolids have been spread in Bedford and Appomattox counties; potential 
sites in Amherst County have been identified.

In 2004, 240,000 dry tons of biosolids were applied as fertilizer to 50,000 
acres of crop, pasture and forest lands in Virginia. About 60 percent of the 
waste came from out of state.
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