Sludge Watch ==> Fight against massive sludge site in Hinkley- Planning Commission meets today

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

As Kern gears up its legal engines to fight the sludge trucks from Los 
Angeles, a new nasty open air sewage sludge 'composting' site is trying to 
open just scant miles east of Kern County in Hinkley, San Beranardino 
County.  San Bernardino isn't short of ways to process its sludges. It 
doesn't need new capacity.   The Nursery Products operation that was 
litigated out of Adelanto for failure to meet their permit requirments, and 
for besetting neighbours with foul odors, flies, and illness, now wants to 
open a facility 10 times bigger in Hinkley (think Erin Brokovich...think 
Chromium 6)

Order your HelpHinkley.com   "no flies on Hinkley: tshirt....just $25
contact dnorm at earthlink.net
...........................
Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Letters to the Editor
On Nov. 30 at the San Bernardino Government Center, 385 North Arrowhead 
Ave., First Floor at 9 a.m., a hearing with the county Planning Commission 
will decide if Nursery Products LLC will be allowed to bring 200-400 trucks 
a day with human sewage sludge and other waste to a proposed open, roofless, 
160 acre composting site, just west of Hinkley.

This location is upwind and upstream of the entire lower Mojave River Basin, 
Barstow included.

Barstow's City Council voted no in united opposition to this facility. I 
pray they send representatives to the Nov. 30 hearing. Citizens of Barstow, 
please urge the Barstow City Council's continued opposition to Nursery 
Products LLC on Nov. 30 in San Bernardino.

Mark Orr, Hinkley

The San Bernardino Planning Commission will meet this Thursday to approve or 
disapprove the Sludge dump outside Hinkley and Barstow. This will become one 
of the largest open-air Sludge dumps in the State if allowed to go forward. 
The Board of Supervisors and MDAQMD have supported this project from the 
beginning. We have tried to object using our rights as the effected 
communities to no avail. The Planning Commission has denied our request to 
move the meeting closer to Barstow.

They are trying to slip this one through against our objections. This type 
of openair facility will be illegal in the near future. That is why they 
need to push this through now. They know that the window is closing on this 
type of facility. The county admits that this will adversely affect our air 
quality and health, but will approve it anyway. There are covered facilities 
in Redlands and Rancho Cucamonga being built now. The Redlands facility is 
being built without any taxpayer dollars. The company will not make a profit 
for 20 years. Nursery Products LLC does not want to spend any extra money or 
wait to make profits. They were run out of Adelanto for not adhering to the 
permits that they signed and received there. And now they are asking to 
receive permission to open their dirty process outside Barstow.

We now must travel to San Bernardino County Courthouse this Thursday at 9 
a.m. to voice our opposition. This is the only thing on the agenda that 
morning so they can try to slip it through as quietly as possible. We need 
to be there to raise our objections.

Please try to attend. We are arraigning transportation now, so contact us 
through www.helphinkley.org to get on the list. If we do not show up now, 
then we will become famous for the largest pile of "sludge" in the state. Is 
that what we want Barstow to be known for?

Norman Diaz, Hinkley
http://www.desertdispatch.com/2006/116481061157026.html
Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Protesters oppose location of meeting to discuss Nursery Products proposal
By AARON AUPPERLEE Staff Writer

BARSTOW - As many as seven people gathered in front of the Anderson True 
Value hardware store on East Virginia Way on Tuesday morning to protest a 
recent decision by the store's owner, Ken Anderson.

Cold temperatures and gusty winds drove most away. By 11:30 a.m., only 
Norman Diaz and Aaron Conaway, son of local attorney and activist Robert 
Conaway, remained.

According to Diaz, Anderson denied a request to move a Planning Commission 
meeting scheduled for Thursday in San Bernardino to a location in Barsotw. 
At the meeting, the San Bernardino County Planning Commission will discuss 
an application from Nursery Products, LLC to establish a site for composting 
biosolids and green materials near State Highway 58 and Helendale Road in 
Hinkley. The meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. at the San Bernardino County 
Government Center.

Anderson, who is the 1st District Representative to the County Planning 
Commission, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. Barstow and its 
surrounding communities lie within the 1st district.

Diaz requested a change of venue for the meeting to a location in Barstow in 
order to make it easier for senior citizens, the disabled and other 
concerned community members to attend. Diaz said Anderson denied the request 
and told him people who could not attend the meeting could submit their 
comments in writing.

"It is kind of hard for people who work because it's at 9 a.m. on a 
Thursday," Diaz said.


Staff photo by Aaron Aupperlee
Norman Diaz talks to a passing motorist on Wednesday during a protest in 
front of the Anderson True Value hardware store on East Virginia Way. The 
hardware store is owned by Ken Anderson, the 1st District Representative to 
the County Planning Commission. Anderson denied a request to move the 
location of a Thursday San Bernardino County Planning Commission meeting on 
the topic of a proposed composting site in Hinkley from offices in San 
Bernardino to a site in Barstow, Diaz said.


However, Diaz and Conaway said they will attend the meeting.

"I'm going for those who don't know and who don't care yet," Conaway said. 
"It's got to be done by the book, and they're not doing that right now."

Conaway and Diaz said that the currently planned open-air composting site 
would release volatile organic compounds into the air that and on windy days 
those compounds could pollute Barstow's air. According to the county's 
notice of the meeting, the Planning Commission could approve an alternative 
proposal for the site.