Sludge Watch ==> "Its reared its ugly head again" - Recyc Sludge in Virginia

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Supervisors won't decide on sludge
By: Monty Tayloe
09/13/2006

"It's reared it's ugly head again. We fought it tooth and nail, but it's 
back," said Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bob Anderson 
at the September BOS session.


Anderson was talking about the land application of sludge, an old 
controversy in Rappahannock County that was resurrected late last month by 
sludge hauler Recyc Systems and two as yet unknown county landowners.


In August, Recyc, based out of Remington, Va. and formerly called Bio-Grow, 
informed the county that they would be applying to the Virginia Department 
of Health for approval to spread sludge on the farmland of two willing 
Rappahannock landowners. Although Rappahannock has had a ban on the land 
application of sludge since 1994, Virginia court decisions in the 
intervening years have probably rendered Rappahannock's ban illegal and 
easily vulnerable to a court challenge from Recyc.

Now, faced with a choice between having their ban struck down in court or 
allowing but extensively regulating the land application of sludge at the 
county level, the Board of Supervisors seems to have decided not to fight, 
at least where the current applications are concerned. According to a 
statement issued by County Administrator John McCarthy after a closed BOS 
session with County Attorney Peter Luke, the Supervisors plan "to allow two 
expected sludge site permitting applications to proceed through the State 
Department of Health permitting process . . . as test cases."

Meanwhile, the Supervisors will "hold in abeyance a redraft and adoption of 
an ordinance creating a local sludge permitting process" and hold a public 
hearing on October 2 to allow the public to weigh in on a proposed removal 
of Rappahannock's sludge ban. The decision, at odds to a previously strong 
BOS position on the issue, has caused uproar among many Rappahannock 
citizens.

Former RLEP President Jim Gannon, who was present at the meeting described 
the supervisors' position as a "sad, whimpering posture," and has decried 
the BOS decision that came during a closed session in which the public could 
not participate.

According to McCarthy, the BOS decision is primarily motivated by time, 
since the application from Recyc will probably be granted before the county 
could create and implement an ordinance that would allow Rappahannock to 
locally regulate the land application of sludge with inspections, frequent 
testing and extensive record keeping. This is particularly galling to local 
environmental leaders, since in 2001 the county held several public hearings 
to create an ordinance for that purpose, but the supervisors never voted to 
enact it.

"We didn't have any applicants to challenge the ban, and there was still the 
possibility that a bill [that would allow the ban] might come before the 
General Assembly, or a court decision might get reversed," explained 
McCarthy.

Since 2001, further acts of the General Assembly and court decisions have 
made even that more recent ordinance obsolete, which puts time on Recyc's 
side, according to McCarthy. However, the county administrator maintains 
that if public opinion at the October 2 hearing is in favor of local 
oversight of the land application of sludge, he and the supervisors plan to 
have an updated version of the 2001 draft ordinance ready.

If an up-to-date version of the 2001 ordinance is enacted, it would 
presumably include policies such as permanent records of all land that held 
sludge, frequent inspections of areas where sludge has been applied, and the 
creation of a government body to oversee the process. The cost to the county 
of such oversight would likely be very high, although there may be limited 
state funds available to offset some of those costs.

Regardless of the price tag, the BOS doesn't seem to believe that Virginia's 
legal climate would allow such efforts to be effective.

"Limitations imposed on local government's ability to regulate the land 
application of sewage sludge would seem to make a robust and effective 
permit regime somewhat impractical," pointed out McCarthy in his written 
statement after the Supervisor's closed session.

The BOS will hold a public hearing to discuss the possible removal of the 
county ban on the land application of sewage sludge on Monday, October 2, 
2006, at 7 p.m. in the Courthouse in Washington, Virginia,


http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab4.cfm?newsid=17193433&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=506086&rfi=6