Sludge Watch ==> Virginia needs to listen to sludge foes

[Maureen Reilly]

State Needs to Listen to Sludge Foes
Lynchburg News & Advance
Thursday, February 8, 2007


Campbell County officials have presented a more than reasonable request to 
the Virginia Department of Health regarding the spread of biosolids in the 
county.

County Administrator David Laurrell has asked the health department to stop 
processing a biosolids permit modification until the General Assembly 
completes its work on legislation that would shift regulatory authority over 
biosolids to the Department of Environmental Quality.

Nutri-Blend, a biosolids hauler, had filed a permit modification request 
with the health department in November to increase the amount of acreage 
eligible for biosolids to 3,100. That’s almost 10 times greater than the 
original permit the firm had for some 300 acres.

Given that legislation to move regulatory control of biosolids from VDH to 
DEQ has passed both the House and the Senate, Laurrell suggested in his 
letter to the health department that it “appears prudent that instead of VDH 
moving this permit forward and getting stuck in the middle during the 
transition period that it would make more sense to have the modification 
proceed after the transition to DEQ takes place.”

As The News & Advance has reported, that would then give DEQ officials a 
chance to review the pending permit modification under their guidelines and 
approve, modify or deny it.

Laurrell also said that the Nutri-Blend “application had a lot of mistakes 
and inaccuracies” in it, adding that the health department is not going to 
move on the permit modification until those mistakes are corrected.

He also said that since a public information meeting between county 
residents and the health department hasn’t been scheduled, it means that 
“VDH is being diligent in making sure the application is correct.”

Nutri-Blend’s permit modification sparked a huge public outcry from Campbell 
residents opposed to spreading treated sewage sludge on county farmland. And 
that outcry prompted the legislation that would move regulation of biosolids 
to DEQ.

Meanwhile, the Board of Supervisors has moved ahead with an ordinance that 
would ban corporations such as Nutri-Blend from spreading treated human 
sewage on farmland in the county.

The draft ordinance was presented last month by an advocacy group known as 
Citizens Against Toxic Sludge, an organization that formed in response to 
the permit modification request that could expand the presence of sludge in 
the county.

Supervisor J.D. Puckett told a crowd at Rustburg High School this week that 
the board was moving ahead on the ordinance. But, he said, “We have to 
fine-tune it in case we get challenged” in court. After that, the board will 
vote to proceed with a public hearing on the proposal - a hearing that 
probably wouldn’t be scheduled until April.

The people and their local representatives in Campbell have spoken on the 
question of spreading sludge in their county. They don’t want it. What 
remains to be seen is whether the state is listening.

This story can be found at: 
http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=LNA%2FMGArticle%2FLNA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149193102680&path=!news!opinion