Sludge Watch ==> Hinkley Calif- residents worried about proposed sludge composter

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

The South Coast Air Quality Monitoring District and now the San Joaquin 
Valley Air Pollution Control District do not allow open air composting of 
sewage sludge without steps to mitigate the release of volatile organic 
compounds (VOCs).

The proposed Nursery Products facility is an a non-attainment area for air 
quality.

So why would the Mojave Air District allow the air to be polluted with the 
smog-producing compounds that a facility like Nursery Products will visit on 
the airshed near Hinkley and Barstow?

Don't the people in the High Desert deserve good air quality?
..............................


Friday, October 6, 2006

Residents worried about proposed facility's impact
By HOWARD DECKER Staff Writer

HINKLEY -- Now that local residents have a chance to read the draft 
environmental document for the proposed waste-composting plant near hear, 
some have expressed reservations about the project.

A county Draft Environmental Report (DEIR) states the proposed plant would 
adversely affect air quality but would have no or less than significant 
impact in 16 other categories including noise, housing, public services and 
transportation/traffic.

The process of turning the wastes into non-hazardous compost material 
involves having a machine mix and turn the wastes while tossing them into 
the air.

Nursery Products LLC (NP) has proposed building a composting facility on 
vacant land near the former Hawes air field south of Highway 58 to recycle 
400,000 tons of wastewater treatment and green wastes per year.

Activist has concerns about air, water

Churning and rotating the material creates contaminated dust, according to 
Hinkley resident Bob Conaway, who is an attorney and activist.

"Reactivation of viruses in the wastes happens when the dust is airborne," 
he said, which would create a potential hazard for both Hinkley and Barstow 
residents.

The two communities are situated in what is the fourthwindiest place in 
California, he said, with constant and high prevailing winds. He and other 
activists fear that toxic dust will be blown to those communities and harm 
residents. The wind generally flows toward Hinkley and Barstow, he said.

"The operators of the proposed plant are counting on the air to dry the 
material out," he said. "It then goes down the road and mixes with the sand 
and ends up in the water supply."

Whatever pathogens, including possible HIV and biomedical wastes, heavy 
metals, or caustic irritants or contaminants, that are in the wastes would 
be reactivated when they hit water, Conaway said. A pathogen is a specific 
causative agent of disease such as a bacterium or virus.

There is a lot of standing water in the desert, he said, such as swimming 
pools, settling ponds and pools used for irrigation.

Consultant says indoor facility not feasible

Geoffrey Swett, environmental consultant for Nursery Products, said the 
people who prepared the DEIR and county officials studied the idea of 
putting the facility inside a building but decided it was not feasible.

Swett also said that he feels that the reactivation charge is a "red 
herring" because the material from wastewater plants have never been shown 
to harm anyone.

"It is not raw sewage and it is highly treated at the wastewater plants," he 
said.

Another problem, Conaway said, is no one knows exactly what is in the wastes 
that would be processed at the plant.

In Redlands, he said, a similar plant is being built with a dome over it. A 
containment device would not have to cost all that much, he said, and would 
keep potential pathogens out of the air.

"The DEIR evaluated that alternative and came to the conclusion that it 
would not meet practical objectives," said Swett.

According to the DEIR, the project proposes to use conventional open 
windrows for its composting process. This approach uses mechanical turning 
of the composting piles to provide control of oxygen, moisture and other 
parameters to maintain and control the composting process. Alternative 
processes include a variety of enclosed or "in-vessel" processes. The 
in-vessel approaches can provide more complete control of air flow and can 
treat air to reduce odors and other emissions prior to release to the 
atmosphere, it states.

"No one is saying, 'Don't do the project,' " Conaway said. "Do it with the 
best available technology, with the public safety in mind."

Diaz pushes City Council to state position on issue

At the City Council meeting Oct. 3, activist Norman Diaz urged the Council 
to come out for or against the NP facility.

"I think it would be important to the people of Barstow, Hinkley, Newberry 
Springs and everybody to know where the Council stands on this facility," he 
said.

"The air quality is unmitigatable," he said. "They cannot fix the air 
quality" for the project, he said.

"They did not even look at a closed facility; they say it is not economic 
for them. Our air quality and our health, though, is something they can 
afford to pass up."

One of the standards that is used to evaluate the environmental impact of a 
site, Conaway said, is what is the best available technology available. This 
has not been considered in the DEIR, he said.

Waste would come from treatment plants

Another problem, Conaway said, is that no standards have been set for the 
type of wastes that will be trucked to the site and processed.

"There are no Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Cal-EPA, no county 
standards, nothing," he said.

The company would not have to state on a truck manifest what hazards might 
be in the material, he said, and there is no mandate to test the wastes for 
pathogens.

"They would have no idea what is in the wastes," he said. "The only place 
you can have any control over what is in the wastes is if in the permitting 
process there is spot checking or some sort of standard for what is in the 
wastes."

It is "absolutely false," Swett said, to say no one will know what is in the 
material from the wastewater plants. The wastes are sampled on a monthly 
basis at the wastewater plant, he said, and the wastes beside green wastes 
will only come from wastewater-treatment plants.

Major airborne contamination risks have not been adequately addressed by the 
DEIR, said Conaway.

"The best available scientific technology has not been utilized in the 
permitting process," he said. In Redlands, he said, they are putting similar 
facilities inside a closed dome, which keeps airborne material that may 
cause health problems contained.

The compost process, he said, includes mixing the waste materials with 
water, and when those wastes come into contact with water or human tissues, 
they can be reactivated, he said.
http://www.desertdispatch.com/2006/116014323861796.html