Sludge Watch ==> Ready for a fight - Planned Sludge Compost Site Raises Ire in Hinkley

[Maureen Reilly]

02/05/2007

Project facing a fight
Planned compost facility raises ire in Hinkley
Chuck Mueller, Staff Writer
San Bernardino County Sun


HINKLEY - Uniting to oppose a proposed waste-composting operation near here, 
residents are mapping out a strategy to convince the San Bernardino County 
Board of Supervisors that the facility is not welcome.

They plan to saturate board members with letters and e-mail opposing a 
permit that would allow Apple Valley-based Nursery Products LLC to open a 
composting operation processing up to 400,000 tons of green material and 
biosolids annually.

Supervisors will consider the permit Feb. 27.

Nursery Products has acquired a 160-acre site eight miles west of Hinkley 
for the facility. Plans call for trucks to haul green waste and biosolids to 
the site, where the material would be converted into agricultural-grade 
compost for use on High Desert farms and lawns.

"We want the board to know we're coming," said Norman Diaz, a Hinkley 
resident who is spearheading the campaign to block the project. "The only 
thing to prevent it from coming is us. We need to let the supervisors know 
there are people out here.

"This thing isn't right, and we're going to beat it."

Seated in a circle inside the Hinkley Fire Hall last week, about 80 
Hinkley-area residents offered to help raise money for an advertising blitz 
against the composting operation and to launch a letter-writing and 
telephone campaign to gather supporters for their cause.

Diaz said about $800 was raised at a recent garage sale. Many said they 
planned to pitch in to boost the campaign. Most said they would take part in 
a bus caravan to attend the Feb. 27 hearing.

Still skittish over a groundwater contamination incident that attracted 
nationwide attention, the residents hope to entice environmental sleuth Erin 
Brockovich to lend her support at the hearing.

Noting that the composting operation was "not just a Hinkley issue," 
homemaker Terry Williams told the crowd, "There is no glass wall to separate 
Hinkley from Barstow. Anyone with kids should realize that they wouldn't 
want this (facility). We want growth, but we want good, reasonable growth."

Hinkley newcomer Helen Moore said she moved recently from Adelanto, where 
people had joined forces to oppose a composting operation.

"We petitioned and marched against it, letting our officials know it would 
be harmful to our children," she said.

Nursery Products shut down the firm's composting facility in Adelanto two 
years ago in the wake of opposition and made plans to relocate the business 
to Newberry Springs.

But residents of that community east of Barstow also made it clear they did 
not want the composting firm as a neighbor, claiming the operation would 
contaminate the water table and generate odor, flies and truck traffic.

Not so, according to the new environmental impact report prepared by San 
Diego-based URS, an independent consulting firm. The report for the Hinkley 
operation said the potential for odor, flies and dust can be minimized 
through special measures planned by the composting firm.

Environmental consultant Geoffrey Swett said the operation will not 
contaminate the aquifer.

"It's over 300 feet to groundwater," he said. "With a rock formation lying 
just east of the site, no water could flow to the Hinkley area."

Before Nursery Products could begin operations, it must develop and put into 
use a plan to minimize odor. As feedstocks arrive at the facility, they 
would be treated with lime or a neutralizing agent to control odor.

"It will be an environmentally safe operation," said Chris Seney, director 
of operations for Nursery Products.

Biosolids, which would be processed at the site, are treated sewage sludge. 
When treated and processed in sewage-treatment facilities, they can be 
recycled and used as fertilizer, according to the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency.

"Composting kills off harmful microbes in biosolids," said Alan Rubin, chief 
author of the EPA's regulation setting standards on using and composting the 
materials.

The composting procedures call for Nursery Products to use a combination of 
windrow and composting pile methods. The process, occurring in a half-mile 
area at the site, would take from 60 to 180 days. Up to 1,000 tons of 
biosolids and 1,000 tons of green material would be received daily. Clean 
soils or other inert materials, such as sand or sawdust, would be used as a 
bulking agent.

The company report indicates moisture levels will limit dust, and odor would 
be reduced to a minimum through a special management plan.


http://www.sbsun.com/ci_5159038

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Desert Dispatch
Letter to the Editor
February 8, 2007

County needs to support Hinkley on waste issue

I think it's time for the Board of Supervisors of San Bernardino County to 
look to their "conscience" on the matter of human waste to be dumped in 
Hinkley. "Thou shall love thy neighbor as you love thyself." We are your 
neighbors on the High Desert, all part of San Bernardino County and yet you 
choose to ignore the wishes of your neighbors! We choose to have our air, 
land, and water, free from pollution by human waste. We choose to have our 
lives pestilence free from disease-carrying flies and rats that are drawn to 
human waste. Do we have to have people die, due to breathing ailments, skin 
problems or perhaps a plague, will that get your attention. The rat 
population on the High Desert is tremendous and a few traps around the 1/2 
mile site, won't stop them from carrying disease to the human population.

You need to truly think about this. Would you allow human waste to be 
trucked into your community from another city? I believe you would ask 
yourself, as we are in the High Desert, "can't they take care of their own 
waste as we do or look into alternate means of disposal. This can't be the 
best way - truck and dump somewhere else that I don't care about." That's 
the message I'm getting.

This is not a matter of how much money the county will get in taxes from 
Nursery Products, this is a matter of which is best for the High Desert and 
its people, your neighbors!

Maria Gregg, Barstow