Sludge Watch ==> Virginia - Biosolids Ordinance Attracting Attention

[Maureen Reilly]

Biosolids proposal attracting attention
By Sarah Watson
swatson at newsadvance.com
Saturday, April 14, 2007


Officials and citizens throughout Virginia are watching as Campbell County 
prepares for Tuesday's public hearing on a controversial biosolids 
ordinance.
The ordinance, based on a model drafted by the Pennsylvania-based Community 
Environmental Legal Defense Fund, would strip corporations of their 
constitutional right to spread biosolids on county land.

It would also establish testing and monitoring standards stronger than state 
code by claiming that the federal Clean Water Act grants the authority.

Virginia law prohibits localities from regulating sewage sludge fertilizer 
more stringently than state code allows.

Localities that have passed ordinances banning or making biosolids use 
economically impossible were challenged in court and lost.

With that in mind, Campbell supervisors are contemplating three versions of 
the ordinance. In addition to the full version, there is a draft 
establishing testing and monitoring standards stronger than current state 
regulations.

A third version establishes testing and monitoring standards in line with 
state law. That third draft, which is similar to what many Virginia counties 
have passed, is strongly supported by biosolids proponents.

"My understanding is that there are a number of folks watching just to see 
if we do something outside the ordinary with this or do what everyone else 
has done by adopting the testing and monitoring ordinance," Campbell County 
administrator David Laurrell said.

Currently, about 150 acres in Campbell County can have treated sewage sludge 
applied as fertilizer, but a pending modification filed by Nutri-Blend Inc., 
a Richmond-based biosolids company would increase that amount to about 
2,800.

Other counties

A Bedford County citizens group presented a similar draft to supervisors a 
week after Citizens Against Toxic Sludge organizer Jennifer England and 
almost 500 Campbell citizens packed the Haberer Building in January.

Until recently, most biosolids in Bedford County came from Roanoke's 
wastewater treatment plant, but during the last few years, massive loads 
have been shipped in from urban and industrial regions of New Jersey.

That sludge, some say, is the source of many complaints about odor and 
toxicity. "Some people characterize (Bedford) as that we're becoming the pay 
toilet of New Jersey," Bedford planning commissioner Steve Stevick said.

Stevick, who lives down the road from a former sludge storage site on 
Otterville Road, has been closely watching how Campbell officials and 
citizens are mobilizing with the ordinance and its offshoots.

Taking many of the things Campbell officials have done into account, Stevick 
and several other planning commissioners are expected to make a 
recommendation at Wednesday's meeting that Bedford officials "adopt measures 
suspending the application of biosolids/sludge due to its unknown impact to 
the health, safety and welfare of its citizens."

Frank Rogers, Bedford's assistant administrator, said top county officials 
are definitely watching what happens with Campbell's ordinance but they will 
do what is best for Bedford's citizens.

Laurrell said he's talked to Bedford officials numerous times about the 
ordinance and how to proceed. "We were probably more keeping an eye on 
Bedford and Bedford keeping an eye on us than anything," he said.

Although biosolids have not been spread in Amherst County, administrator 
Rodney Taylor said he is definitely following how Campbell County's handling 
the situation. "I think it's an interesting development in the biosolids 
debate," he said.

Steve Carter, administrator for Nelson County, is monitoring Campbell 
County's actions but does not currently plan a similar ordinance.

The county recently created a biosolids committee that will decide if the 
county needs an ordinance and, if so, will draft it. The current draft, 
Carter said, is strictly a testing and monitoring ordinance based on state 
regulations.

In more than 25 years of spreading treated sewage sludge fertilizer in 
Halifax County, assistant county administrator Jerry Lovelace said he can 
only remember one incident that resulted in complaints. Lovelace said a 
combination of a treatment malfunction and bad timing resulted with a very 
smelly load of sludge from Danville's plant spread on a farm the day before 
Thanksgiving.

Following that incident, county officials contemplated passing a biosolids 
ordinance, but it never got to public hearing because supervisors decided it 
wasn't needed, Lovelace said.

Despite that, Lovelace said county officials are watching what's happening 
in Campbell simply because they are interested in keeping up with issues in 
surrounding localities.

Pittsylvania County administrator Dan Sleeper said he wasn't following 
Campbell's actions. Biosolids have been spread on county land for at least 
20 years without a problem, Sleeper said. "We're a large large county and 
basically the areas are very agricultural."

Concerned citizens

Concerned citizens in surrounding counties are watching to see if the full 
ordinance that would ban corporations from spreading biosolids will pass 
muster. "We're only going to back the original one," Mary Carwile, chair of 
the Commonwealth Coalition for the Responsible Application of Sludge.

If that ordinance has support from the Campbell board, "then you're probably 
going to see a domino effect," Carwile, who lives in Prince Edward County, 
said.

Those living in counties where treated sewage sludge is causing concerns 
among residents may present similar ordinances to their boards, she said. 
"We've all got our eyes on what's going to happen with the ordinance."


In the industry

It's Chris Peot's job to find a home for biosolids from Washington, D.C.'s 
Blue Plains treatment facility. As a wastewater engineer and biosolids 
manager for the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority, Peot has been working for 
several years to find ways to process sewage sludge so the odor is as 
unobtrusive as possible.

Recently, Nutri-Blend, the waste management corporation that is permitted to 
apply biosolids in Campbell County, was subcontracted by Blue Plains to cart 
away the material, Peot said.

"I have a keen interest in what's going on there because Nutri-Blend is now 
taking our material," he said.

Considering what the company has at stake, Mary Powell, Nutri-Blend's 
operations manager, is definitely following the progression of the 
ordinance. If the county wants to pass an ordinance, Powell said, then the 
company supports passing legislation establishing testing standards and 
monitor.

"I think that would give them a lot of control, which is what they're 
looking for," she said. "The other two are obviously not legal ordinances, 
so we obviously can't support those."

Though attorney Tim Hayes is in Richmond, he's paying close attention to how 
things progress in Rustburg.

"The Campbell County ordinance is so much of a departure from anything 
anyone's done before and the political situation is so superheated," Hayes, 
who represents biosolids companies, including Synagro, said. "For a Board of 
Supervisors to be taking anything like that seriously strikes us to be very 
unusual."

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