Sludge Watch ==> Anti Sludge Effort Brews in Hinkley Calif - opposition to Nursery Products LLC

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

It is hard to understand how regulators could even consider allowing open 
air sludge 'composting' or air drying in the high winds of this site.  How 
can they allow all those volatile organic compounds and particulate into the 
air with no possibility of emissions controls?

This site has no proposed enclosure for the sludge, no electricity, and its 
not clear if there is to be any water on site!  You can't compost anything 
in the desert without the addition of water.


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


http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_7655507


Anti-sludge effort brews in Hinkley


Shawbong Fok, Staff Writer
12/06/2007


HelpHinkley.org, a nonprofit trying to stop the dumping of barrels of sludge 
in Hinkley, unveiled a campaign to fight a plan to bury tons of muck 
leftover from wastewater.

Group members unveiled a 5-gallon bucket Tuesday at the Hinkley Firehouse 
Station to an audience of 20 who support the fight against the county's 
efforts to dump as much as 400,000 tons a year of sludge - the leftover muck 
from wastewater - about eight miles away from Hinkley. Dumping is scheduled 
to begin next year.

In January, the plastic bucket - which takes samples of air delivered to 
labs - will help test toxic gases in the air. After the sludge is dumped, 
the bucket will again sample the air. The two results will be compared to 
see how sludge affects the air.

"One reason they're dumping on us is we're a little town in the middle of 
nowhere," said Hinkley resident Normal Diaz, the founder of HelpHinkley.org.

Hinkley is a small town near Barstow that became popularized by the Julia 
Roberts movie "Erin Brockovich," a 2000 film about an unemployed single 
mother who becomes a legal assistant and almost single-handedly brings down 
a California power company accused of polluting a town's water supply.

In February, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors approved the 
dump site outside Hinkley.

"I'm confident there'll be zero impact on Hinkley," said 1st District 
Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt.

Diaz disagreed.

"The sludge is cancerous and could cause reproductive problems with gases 
that come off the material," Diaz said.

He said those problems could be solved by dumping sludge in an enclosed 
site. But the scheduled site is proposed to be done in an open-air pit. With 
the High Desert's winds, the sludge's by-products - sulfur, ammonium, 
methane, heavy metals, among others - drift into Hinkley and possibly 
Barstow, he added.

"My kids or grandkids will be affected," Diaz said. "This is going to blow 
all over the kid's playground."

Barstow residents say the winds in the area are strong enough to blow the 
sludge's by-products their way.

"I'll sometimes get dirt in my teeth when I smile outside," said Jeri 
Justus, an executive director of the Barstow Chamber of Commerce.

The potential problems have at least one Barstow councilman fuming.

"I'm concerned about the smell and chemicals in the air," said Councilman 
Joe Gomez. "I oppose an outdoor compost facility."