Sludge Watch ==> Hinkley sludge plant - sand blast the neighborhood with sludge particulate

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

You can listen to the story and see the photographs if you go to the website 
below.
This is very well written, including comments from California health 
agencies.
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Sludge-plant proposal worries Hinkley residents



   Download story podcast
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_B_hinkley24.1f2e998.html



10:00 PM PST on Friday, February 23, 2007

By IMRAN GHORI
The Press-Enterprise

Amid the alfalfa fields and handful of dairies that make up the Mojave 
Desert community of Hinkley, small yellow poles jut out of the ground, 
marking the spots where wells monitor groundwater for toxicity.

Story continues below

Stan Lim / The Press-Enterprise
"I don't want to be the test," says Norm Diaz, a Hinkley resident who would 
prefer that a proposed open-air sewage-sludge treatment facility eight miles 
to the west of town be enclosed in a dome. The company says that idea is not 
financially feasible.
The wells are a reminder of the battle the rural community faced more than a 
decade ago when residents learned that their water was contaminated with a 
potentially dangerous chemical.

Hinkley residents again find themselves fighting what they say is a threat 
to their health: a proposed open-air sewage-sludge treatment facility eight 
miles to the west.

The Nursery Products project on 160 acres near Highway 58 was approved in 
November by the San Bernardino County Planning Commission. The county Board 
of Supervisors is scheduled to hear an appeal Tuesday filed by opponents.

The facility would collect up to 2,000 tons per day of biosolids from 
sewage-treatment plants. It would process 400,000 ton of waste a year to 
produce compost that would be sold for agricultural use, according to 
application documents.

The site, near an abandoned airfield, is flat, open land. The nearest house 
is two miles away. Its remoteness and the arid desert conditions were among 
the reasons the company chose the location, said Brian Lochrie, a spokesman 
for Nursery Products.

"It has no community around it within eight miles," Lochrie said.

But Norm Diaz, a Hinkley resident leading the opposition to the plant, said 
the site is close enough to Hinkley for residents to be concerned. He said 
he fears the strong winds common to the area will carry dust and other 
harmful bacteria to homes and Hinkley School, which his twin 7-year-old sons 
attend.

"It gets so windy up here, it'll sandblast your car," said Dennis Hirsch, 
principal of the school. A sign outside states: "Say no to sludge."

Opponents, who include the city of Barstow, area community-services 
districts and environmentalists, say the project will increase traffic, air 
pollution and noxious odors. The proposed site also is considered habitat 
for desert tortoises, a federally protected species, and the Mohave ground 
squirrel.

Story continues below

Hinkley School and some homes would be affected by a proposed 
sludge-treatment facility, say some Hinkley residents.
Diaz and other residents are particularly concerned about what they believe 
may be the negative health effects associated with biosolids. Also referred 
to as sludge, the waste product from homes, businesses and industry will be 
stored on the site in piles 1,000 feet long and 12 feet high, called 
windrows.

Nursery Products operated an open-air compost facility in Adelanto but 
agreed to leave town in a 2005 settlement after residents complained about 
odor and flies. A state Department of Health Services investigation cited 
reports of nausea, bloody noses and breathing difficulty by children at a 
nearby elementary school.

Disagreement About Effects

The state agency has raised concerns about the new project, noting that it 
will result in an increase in volatile organic compounds, a precursor to 
ozone, the main ingredient of smog.

In a letter responding to the project's environmental study, Tracy Barreau, 
an environmental scientist with the agency, said the health effects of 
biosolids remain uncertain. She cited a 2002 study by the National Research 
Council of the National Academy of Sciences that suggested the federal 
regulations for biosolids should be updated.

Alan Rubin, a consultant for Nursery Products who worked at the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency and wrote its regulations on biosolid 
management, disagreed with the state agency's interpretation of the study.

"They clearly did not find that these concerns were dangerous enough that 
these practices be ended," he said of the National Research Council study.

Rubin said biosolids are "100 percent safe." Any dust particles carried by 
the wind would not have a significant-enough concentration of bacteria to 
affect anybody, he said.

Representatives of Nursery Products acknowledged that mistakes were made 
with its facility in Adelanto, where they also took in curbside green waste 
that became a breeding ground for flies.

Story continues below

Stan Lim / The Press-Enterprise
Norm Diaz says San Bernardino County should be cautious of the company 
proposing a sludge-treatment facility. Nursery Products left Adelanto after 
residents complained of odor and flies.
Lochrie said the new facility would take only treated waste from San 
Bernardino and Riverside county treatment plants

"Basically, it was a lesson learned for Nursery Products," he said.

Diaz said given the company's history and the questions over health effects, 
the county should be cautious about approving the project.

"I don't want to be the test," he said. "I don't want my kids to prove one 
right or wrong."

Debating a Dome

Diaz said the facility should be enclosed with a dome like one being built 
by another company in Rancho Cucamonga.

Lochrie said such a project would not be financially feasible. The open-air 
project will cost up to $3 million to build, he said. An enclosed facility 
would cost more than $85 million, he said.

The county's environmental study found that adding a dome still would not 
reduce volatile organic compounds to a less- than-significant level.

Planners said that the U.S. EPA and the California Integrated Waste 
Management Board consider composting a "safe and viable" method of managing 
biosolids.

County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, who represents the High Desert district, 
did not return calls seeking comment.

Activist Erin Brockovich, who helped lead Hinkley's fight against 
contaminated water and whose story was told in the movie bearing her name, 
has joined the residents in opposing the composting facility, Diaz said.

Brockovich is helping to pay for buses to bring residents to Tuesday's 
hearing, and may attend it, he said.

Hirsch, the school principal, described the community of about 1,900 as 
mostly poor with a large minority population.

"We're up against big money," Hirsch said. "There's not a lot of money here 
in Hinkley."

Reach Imran Ghori at 909-806-3061 or ighori at PE.com