Sludge Watch ==> Nursery Products - non compliant sludge plant proposes to open 40 times bigger

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

It is hard to figure out why the County of San Bernardino is so determined 
to facilitate the re-opening of the bad boy sludge 'composting' plant 
"Nursery Products".  No, there is no nursery, no little children, no little 
sprouting flowers or bushes.  Nursery Products made a stinking mess in 
Adelanto when they ran a 25,000 cubic meter sludge 'compost' operation.  A 
judge ordered them to stop taking sludge for public health and nuisance 
reasons.  Despite the fact that they were unable to manage 25,000 cubic 
yards of sludge, they are now asking for a permit to open a facility in 
Hinkley California that is 40 times BIGGER! They want to make a million 
1,000,000 cu yards of sludge compost.

Naturally Hinkley residents, still reeling from the Chromium 6 contamination 
made famous in the film "Erin Brokovich", are understandably horrified.  
Below is a link to the commentary from the City of Barstow just a few miles 
north east of the proposed site.

The proposed plant is in the middle of an area that is supposed to nurture 
the endangered Desert Tortoise back to sustainable numbers.  But this open 
air sludge plant will allow desert winds to whip the decomposing toilet 
wastes over waste areas of the Desert Tortoise habitat.

The Desert Tortoise, like the residents of Hinkley, are already 
immunocompromised.  Expose to the Gram negative and gram positive bacteria, 
heavy metals, greenhouse gases, and volatile organic compounds from the site 
could have devastating effects.

The Nursery Products site in Adelanto was famous for the swarms of flies 
that left the site and covered the homes, dog food dishes, and lunches of 
local school children. Workers at the adjacent power station couldn't pour a 
cup of coffee without finding several flies floating in the cup before it 
touched their lips.

Once again, Nursery Products intends to make 'compost' by violating the 
composting requirements of the California Code and the Part 503 sludge 
regulations.  They do not intend to turn the compost the 5 times during the 
composting phase as required by both state and federal composting 
requirements.

.........................................

State deals blow to Hinkley
Panel recommends sludge-plant permit
Andrew Silva, Staff Writer San Bernardino Sun
Article Launched: 08/07/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT

Hinkley residents appear to have lost another round in their battle against 
a sludge-processing facility.

A committee of the state waste board on Monday recommended that a permit be 
issued for a plan to accept up to 2,000 tons per day of treated sewage 
sludge eight miles from Hinkley.

"I would say it's not looking good," said LaVella Tomlinson of Barstow, who 
testified against the project. "I think their mind was made up."

The recommendation will go for a vote of the full California Integrated 
Waste Management Board on Aug. 14.

More than 60 people assembled in a basketball gym at the Cora Harper Fitness 
Center in Barstow for a remote feed from Sacramento.

That enabled about two dozen residents of Hinkley and Barstow to spell out 
their opposition to the plan by Apple Valley-based Nursery Products LLC to 
compost up to 400,000 tons per year of biosolids into mulch and fertilizer.

Residents especially worried about fierce desert winds carrying dust and 
contaminants to their town, which already suffered from groundwater 
contamination, made famous by the movie "Erin Brockovich."

The project is also opposed by the city of Barstow, the Helendale Community 
Services District and
Advertisement
other public agencies.

"Greetings from the land where the wind blows 365 days a year," said 
Kimberly Cox, a board member of the Mojave Water Agency and general manager 
of the Helendale Community Services District.

She and others asked that the facility not be allowed to operate in the open 
air.

"At the very least, enclose the facility and help us preserve our 
lifestyle," she said.

After listening to the testimony, the board members had several questions.

The president of Nursery Products, Jeffrey Meberg, said problems with dust, 
flies and odors in Adelanto, where the company operated previously, were 
caused by accepting too much grass early on and that the project was too 
close to neighbors.

There will be dust control, including watering, and the rows of biosolids 
will not be turned if the wind is blowing too hard.

The board members on the committee were satisfied by those measures, and 
that the distance from people is great enough to prevent problems.

"They are in about as remote a locale as you can be," board member Jeffrey 
Danzinger said. "This will be a public-benefit facility. They can have a 
positive impact on the Inland Empire and Southern California."

Board member Rosalie Mul said she toured the site and was convinced it will 
not pose a hazard.

"To all of you in Hinkley and Barstow, we do have your health and safety 
foremost in our minds," she said.

Residents were disappointed after the vote.

"I think we're getting the shaft again," said Mark Orr of Hinkley.

Another Hinkley resident, Norman Diaz, has spent the past 15 months leading 
the fight against the facility. He said it wasn't right that the waste-board 
staff had recommended granting the permit before hearing any public 
testimony.

"We're not done by any means," he said.

http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_6560829



/////////////////////////////////

to read the letter from the City of Barstow go to:

http://mysite.verizon.net/res7xl4c/city%20ltr.pdf