Sludge Watch ==> Say no to polluting obsolete Hinkley Nursery Products proposal

[Maureen Reilly]

Attached are two alerts from the Centre for Biological Diversity

here is some plain text but to see the full reports look at the attachments.
The Center for Biological Diversity is calling for sludge to be managed in 
modern
state of the art facilities with reduction of greenhouse gases and 
containment of
contaminants.



.....................................
Say No! to Polluting, Obsolete Sewage Sludge Facility

On February 27th, the County of San Bernardino Board of Supervisors will 
vote to approve or deny a polluting, obsolete treatment facility for human 
waste proposed in Hinkley, California.  The town of Hinkley's previous 
battle against chromium-6 pollution is featured in the movie "Erin 
Brockovich."
The facility would produce unacceptable levels of air pollution that would 
both harm human health and contribute to global warming. The 160-acre 
facility would also destroy important habitat for the desert tortoise and 
other species.  The Center, along with our partners HelpHinkley, Center on 
Race, Poverty, and the Environment, and Desert Citizens against Pollution, 
has appealed the County's approval of this project to the San Bernardino 
County Board of Supervisors.
Please write the Supervisors today and request that they deny approval of 
this harmful project!


Send a letter to the following decision maker(s):
San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors
Below is the sample letter:


Subject: Please Deny Hinkley Sewage Sludge Project


Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],
Please uphold the appeal filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, 
HelpHinkley, the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment, and Desert 
Citizens against Pollution of the Planning Commission's approval of the 
sewage sludge treatment facility proposed in Hinkley (SCH#2006051021).

The obsolete treatment methods proposed for the human waste will create 
unacceptable health risks, odors, and other problems. Moreover, the 
applicant has an extremely poor record of resolving complaints from a 
similar facility in Adelanto, California. The County of San Bernardino 
should be leading the way in requiring state of the art methods for reducing 
air pollution, including greenhouse gas pollution. Yet the Environmental 
Impact Report failed to require or even analyze modern methods of sewage 
sludge treatment. At a minimum, the county should require a fully enclosed 
facility with biofilters, similar to the Inland Empire Composting Facility 
in Rancho Cucamonga.

Please lead the way to a cleaner, safer, and healthier future for San 
Bernardino County by upholding the appeal and requiring that sewage sludge 
be composted in an enclosed, state-of-the art facility to reduce pollution.

Thank you for your consideration of these comments.
Sincerely,



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

What's At Stake:
The proposed project would consist of open-air composting of several hundred 
thousand tons of human waste, in the form of sewage sludge, per year.  This 
type of facility has produced severe health problems in other areas due to 
the high volume of particulate matter, ammonia, odors, and other pollutants 
it generates.  State-of-the-art methods are available to reduce these 
harmful emissions as well as the greenhouse gas pollution from the 
decomposition of the sludge. At a time when the critical importance of 
reducing greenhouse gas and other air pollution has become crystal clear, 
the County has refused to require, or even analyze, modern methods of sewage 
sludge treatment.
The community of Hinkley, already dealing with the aftermath of chromium-6 
pollution, is a particularly unsuitable location for the proposed facility, 
and raises serious environmental justice concerns.  The facility would also 
destroy important habitat for the threatened desert tortoise and other 
species.