Sludge Watch ==> Alabama: sludge on mine site poses mercury hazard in Jackson County

[Maureen Reilly]

  Sludgewatch Admin:

The idea that you can use a contaminated material - like sewage sludge - to 
'rehabilitate' mining areas leads to just this kind of environmental damage. 
  Rehabilitating the property from mercury will be expensive, and you can't 
undo the release of mercury into the environment.

This is just why we need to find better management approaches to 
sludge...starting with a requirement that dentists use amalgam traps in the 
sink.  We should avoid building sewers in new communities and develop more 
water efficient source separated on site santitation systems.

And we need to find better technologies to deal with the sewage sludge we do 
make.


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Sludge dump poses hazard in Jackson County
12/21/2007, 8:51 a.m. ET
The Associated Press    - Everything Alabama


SCOTTSBORO, Ala. (AP) — Jackson County has an environmental problem.

Officials say tons of out-of-state sewage sludge dumped at an abandoned 
mining area near Pisgah are posing an environmental hazard. The waste was 
deposited there more than a decade ago.

Commission Chairman James Tidmore says the state is leading efforts to 
reclaim the land, which has been contaminated by mercury leaks from the 
sludge.

The Tennessee Valley Authority let the city of Chattanooga dump about 80 
tons of sludge a day at the site over a four-month period in 1995. The waste 
was from a sewage treatment plant.

Former Jackson County Commissioner Stella Houser complained about the 
dumping at the time, saying it could contaminate drinking water. The federal 
utility claimed it wouldn't pose a threat.


http://www.al.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-33/119824554796360.xml&storylist=alabamanews