Sludge Watch ==> Hinkley to be hit with 400, 000 tons of sludge 'compost'

[Maureen Reilly]

  Sludgewatch Admin:

A bowed but not defeated group returned home from this unhappy Board 
meeting.


Stay Calm
Be Brave
Wait for the Signs
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http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-hinkley28feb28,1,3819840.story?page=2&coll=la-headlines-pe-california

San Bernardino County OKs desert sewage sludge composting plant
Residents of Hinkley, near the proposed facility, protest the decision in 
vain.
By Sara Lin
Times Staff Writer

February 28, 2007

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously 
in favor of a proposed sewage sludge composting plant that would be built 
eight miles outside the high desert town of Hinkley, despite strong 
objections from residents worried about potential health hazards.

"I think this will end up being the best project possible under the 
circumstances," said Board Chairman Paul Biane.

The town was made famous by activist Erin Brockovich, who helped force 
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to pay a multimillion-dollar settlement for 
allegedly polluting the town's groundwater and causing serious health 
problems for residents. That successful effort was later made into the movie 
"Erin Brockovich," starring Julia Roberts.

Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, whose district includes Hinkley, said he wasn't 
convinced that composting sludge would harm the community.

"The project, as I see it, is a cost-effective and environmentally efficient 
way to recycle biosolids and green waste. It's a benefit to the county; it 
will save landfill space," he said.

The supervisors voted 4 to 0 in favor of the project. Supervisor Gary Ovitt 
was absent and the only supervisor not to vote.

Apple Valley-based Nursery Products LLC plans to compost sludge — the 
cake-like material left over after raw sewage is treated at a sanitation 
plant — on 80 acres of Mojave Desert outside Hinkley.

Residents of Hinkley and nearby Barstow — communities that are downwind of 
the proposed facility — fear that strong desert winds will blow odors and 
bacteria-laden dust into the air, making people sick. Under the current 
plan, San Bernardino and Riverside counties could unload 400,000 tons of 
sludge per year at the facility.

About 120 people — middle school children wearing anti-sludge T-shirts, 
elected officials from Barstow, and Hinkley residents wearing cowboy hats — 
made the two-hour trip south to attend Tuesday's often-tense meeting.

"You tell me that if your kids and your family lived downwind of this thing 
that you wouldn't be standing where I'm standing," said Hinkley resident 
Norman Diaz, his voice cracking as he spoke against the project.

His 7-year-old twin sons stood on either side of him as he addressed the 
board.

"It's just too dangerous; it's just not worth the risks. This is a bad 
project that needs to be stopped."

A lawyer for Nursery Products, David Hagopian, at times heckled by the 
audience, assured the board that composting did not pose a health threat to 
desert residents.

The proposed facility fulfills an important need for sludge composting 
plants in Southern California, he said, and would produce agricultural-grade 
compost to be used on local farms.

"Biosolids are not raw sewage," he said. "The bottom line is that composting 
biosolids is safe. We're far away from people, and communities and from 
industry."

Brockovich was in Australia and unable to attend the meeting, said Diaz, who 
is leading the charge against Nursery Products.

A Brockovich aide read her statement to the board: "Citizens in this area 
already have compromised immune systems. They moved to a town with open land 
and open air hoping to have a safe place for their children to visit. Please 
put yourself in their shoes."

In a public hearing that lasted more than four hours, residents opposed to 
the project pointed to the company's history with the city of Adelanto, 
where city officials sued in 2005 to close a similar facility there after 
residents complained of odors and flies.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which had a switching station 
200 yards from the Adelanto facility, also filed suit after workers' eyes 
itched and their noses ran because of dust and odors, said DWP attorney S. 
David Hotchkiss.

Nursery Products representatives said the odor and fly problems evaporated 
after they stopped accepting curbside green waste.

They decided to move to a new site rather than face a protracted legal 
battle, company representatives said.

After Adelanto, the company tried to relocate to nearby Newberry Springs, 
where residents made such a fuss that the company withdrew its proposal.

Alan Rubin, a former senior scientist for the U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency, said residents' fears about getting sick from being downwind were 
unfounded.

"This is site is eight miles from the nearest community. There is zero 
evidence that this biosolids recycling facility will have any negative 
impact on public health," he said.

Hinkley residents still suffering from cancer and other serious illnesses 
they blame on a leaky PG&E gas facility, say they aren't willing to take the 
risk.

"People listened to PG&E, and they said everything was OK. But it wasn't; we 
listened, and it cost a lot of lives," said Floyd Burns, 72. He drives his 
wife, Jean, to Victorville for chemotherapy five days a week.

Jean Burns, 67, survived breast cancer but now suffers from lymphoma that 
she believes was caused by chromium poisoning. She was part of a second 
lawsuit against PG&E.

Residents say they wouldn't mind Nursery Product's composting plant so much 
if the company would enclose it and filter odors. Nursery Products officials 
have said that option is too expensive.

Diaz said that Hinkley residents, crushed by the board's decision, cannot 
afford to file a lawsuit to block the project.

"We've spent all our money," he said.

*


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sara.lin at latimes.com