Sludge Watch ==> Eyes Averted - Where were wastewater enforcers at spinach plant?

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sacramento Bee
EDITORIAL


Editorial: Eyes averted
Where were enforcers at spinach plant?
-
Friday, September 22, 2006

Until the recent E. coli outbreak, the commercialization of bagged
spinach and "spring mix" was one of California's great marketing coups.
Consumers nationwide started eating more fresh greens and enjoying
healthier diets because farmers, mainly those in the Salinas Valley,
invented new ways to grow, package and distribute salad to grocers and
restaurants across the country.

Yet, as is often the case with large-scale agriculture, when things go
wrong, they go wrong in a big way. More than 150 people have become ill
from an outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 that investigators traced to spinach
packaged by Natural Selection Foods in San Juan Bautista. The empowering
vegetable of Popeye has been turned into consumer kryptonite, and an
entire multibillion-dollar industry in the Salinas Valley is paying the
price.

Americans enjoy some of the safest food in the world, but a story in The
Bee Thursday suggests that regulators -- particularly those here in
California -- are not doing enough to keep it that way.

In at least two instances, San Benito County and the Central Coast
Regional Water Quality Control Board shirked their duties in making sure
that Natural Selection properly disposed of vegetable washwater and
sewage generated by 400 employees.

The county required Natural Selection to build an onsite sewage disposal
system for its employees in 1999 as a condition for expanding processing
facilities. The company expanded but never built the disposal system.
The county looked the other way. After trucking its waste off site for
several years, the company connected to San Juan Bautista's sewage
system, where it is allowed to discharge 90,000 gallons a day of
wastewater.

Natural Selection also has a state permit that allows it to dispose of
vegetable washwater in fields where only animal feed is grown. Yet for
at least four years, the company has disposed of four times more wash
water than its limit of 70,000 gallons per day. The Central Coast water
board has known about the apparent violation since February, but doesn't
seem terribly concerned about the consequences. Is the excessive
spraying of washwater raising the water table or running off into
streams? Natural Selection has also failed to provide basic answers
about its disposal practices.

These wastewater problems may have nothing to do with the outbreak of E.
coli 0157:H7 -- a particularly dangerous strain of this bacteria -- that
has been found in spinach distributed to 23 states. Other possible
culprits include tainted fertilizers, sanitation practices among farm
workers or contamination in the packaging process.

Even so, the inability of state and local officials to enforce basic
wastewater requirements provides little confidence that anyone is
closely monitoring this important industry or watching out for regional
threats. As The Bee and the Los Angeles Times have reported, dangerous
strains of E. coli and other pathogens spread by cattle and other
livestock are regularly found in steams that run through the Salinas
Valley.

Health inspectors are close to certifying spinach grown in other parts
of the state and the country, which means that fresh spinach will soon
be back on store shelves. People should eat it. Overall, the industry's
growth has been good for public health. But the public should demand
more from state and local regulators, whose actions can affect the
well-being of people around the country.