Sludge Watch ==> Campbell County - Supervisors reject sludge ordinance

[Maureen Reilly]

Bellow is the News & Advance article:

Campbell County supervisors rejected a controversial biosolids ordinance 
Tuesday that would ban corporations from spreading biosolids. However, the 
board approved a monitoring ordinance similar to one on the books in more 
than 20 Virginia localities.

The votes came after a lengthy public hearing on three ordinances of varying 
complexity, including the original corporate ordinance that also would have 
set tighter testing and monitoring standards than state regulations allow.

“I’m opposed to biosolids, but I’m not opposed to working in the law,” 
Brookneal Supervisor J.D. Puckett said. “I will not vote on anything that is 
contrary to the law.”

The initial ordinance, drafted by Pennsylvania-based Community Environmental 
Legal Defense Fund lawyers, was presented in January by Citizens Against 
Toxic Sludge president Jennifer England, along with more than 450 county 
residents who overflowed the Haberer Building to show their support.

“I wish this was just about taking a poll,” Sunburst Supervisor Rick Boyer 
said after detailing the legal defense fund’s motivations and core beliefs, 
which included granting constitutional rights to nature. “We’re also a 
nation of laws and if we don’t like them, we have to work through them. The 
only legal recourse I see we have is the (state monitoring ordinance.)”

“As several others have said, the answer is to work on Congress and the 
state legislature,” Rustburg Supervisor Hugh Pendleton said. “I would 
guarantee this board would vote 7-0 to ban it if we have the legal 
authority.”

Supervisors listened to residents from Campbell, Charlotte and Halifax 
counties express their opinions on why or why not the county should adopt an 
ordinance. A stand-up body count showed the vast majority of the almost 400 
in attendance were in favor of the first ordinance.

“Sometimes I feel like you gotta venture out,” Concord Supervisor Eddie 
Gunter said, just before the CATS ordinance was rejected 2-5. “I know the 
lawyers have told us that this isn’t the right thing to do. I don’t always 
make a decision on what a lawyer tells me.”

Here are some of the views expressed at the hearing:

• Ann Burleigh, Concord:

“I stand before you a mother of five and a grandmother of 13. I do not have 
a degree in science or chemistry. But common sense tells me that sludge is 
not a good thing. We are expected to be stewards of our land. If we spread 
the sludge, we are polluting the very soil we grow our crops on and let our 
cows graze on. We have no idea how long these toxins will affect or how long 
they will remain.

“I do truly fear for the future of my children and my grandchildren. Where 
is the justice where a man or even five can pollute our land? You are 
proposing other ordinances that take the teeth out of the one that all of 
the majority of the citizens in here support. You are our leaders. We need 
for you to be leaders who believe in justice for all, not just the 
influential.”

• Ed Foster:

“Sludge companies don’t want to come out in the open and claim their rights 
are higher than those of the people. That would likely draw a negative and 
national response.

“Other counties are looking to us for leadership on this issue. It takes 
courage to try something extreme. I think it’s time you listen to the 
majority of the people in Campbell County and take that leap of faith. 
Gentlemen, close your eyes, take a deep breath and jump.”

• Carter Elliot:

The farming business has had to deal with high input prices, encroaching 
development and elements beyond our control. You as supervisors have an 
obligation to encourage the farming business which has been one of the 
mainstays of the economy of our entire county - both through your actions 
and ordinances.”

“If CATS has a legally viable ordinance, why didn’t one of the 25 attorneys 
in Campbell County come to their defense instead of engaging an out-of-state 
attorney?

“No matter how well-researched studies supporting biosolids have been, CATS 
dismisses them because they don’t support the claims that these extremists 
want you to believe.

“Say ‘no’ to pushy outsiders who present inflammatory and poorly researched 
data to support their end.”

• Charles Poole, Concord:

“When sludge is applied, certain parameters have to be met. Who is going to 
go out and explain to the deer, rabbits and quail that they shouldn’t be 
eating from a sludged field?

“The hunter that shoots it is taking home a carcass full of fresh pathogens. 
The farmers who want to spread this stuff should be required to put a fence 
around it.”

• Steve Holt, Gladys:

I feel enough has already been said on the biosolids issue in Campbell 
County. I would like to remind you that biosolids have been applied (without 
problems in neighboring counties) and within the boundaries of Campbell 
County 20 years ago without any problems.”

• Charlie Graf, Concord:

“Some farmers say that they have a right to do whatever they choose on their 
land. I partially agree with that statement, but it is misleading for them 
to say they can apply sewage sludge only to their land.

“In order to apply sludge to their land only, they would have to cover it 
immediately after application so that the wind would not blow pathogens off 
their land.

“Just because I own land, which I do, does not give me the right to use it 
indiscriminately.”

• Jennifer England, Gladys:

“For all their efforts, this sludge industry has been unable to stop the 
people whom they have sickened from speaking. And those who are next on the 
sludge industry radar are listening. The people in Campbell County and all 
the counties in Virginia are unwilling to become just victims of legal 
poisoning, relegated to the status of ‘annecdotal illnesses.’

“At its core, this issue is one of local control and the inalienable rights 
of the people of this county to self-governance and majority rule.”