Sludge Watch ==> Watch the wind move the dust around Hinkley- now picture sludge dust

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Watch this little video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyXDhW5zD8Q


There are extraordinary winds and flash floods that rip through the Mojave 
Desert where Nursery Products is planning to build a massive open air sludge 
site.  Here in the High Desert there were huge thunderheads of dust 
obscuring the sky as winds tore up the desert hurtling dust and particulate 
high into the air to drop on communities further west.

I was just glad there was no open air sludge site because I can't imagine 
trying to breathe in those sludge particles.  There is no enclosed aspect to 
this facility.  There is little in the way of infrastructure: no water, no 
electricity, no permanent structure, no soil to cover the composting sludge 
berms, no mitigations for particulate, ammonia, ozone,  volatile organic 
compounds, or greenhouse gases like methane.

Mr DeSalvio from the Mojave Air Quality Management District said that the 
Mojave Air District 'forgot' to comment on the proposed open air sewage 
sludge processing site.

They forgot.  It just slipped by them.  Five turnings of the windrow and 
400,000 tons of air dried sewage sludge in storage in an unstoppable 
unmitigatable wind condition .... hardly worth mentioning apparently.  Staff 
from the Air District stated at the Board of Supervisor's meeting last night 
that the reason why the South Coast Air Quality Monitoring District doesn't 
allow open air composting sites is because the South Coast has problems with 
particulate and ammonia.  He said the Mojave Air District doesn't have these 
problems.

But it does.  Hinkley is in a PM non attainment zone.

Residents of Hinkley and Barstow might want to watch the abatement / 
enforcement functions of the Mojave Air District at a persistently stinky 
pet food plant in the airshed.  They will get an idea of just how many 
complaints it will take to move the Mojave Air District to take 
action....somewhere over 200 complaints per month haven't fixed the problem 
yet.

http://www.vvdailypress.com/blogs/business/2006/11/29/residents_get_ready_to_sue_nut/