Sludge Watch ==> Imperial Valley - Sludge Plant takes the Top Ten Title

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:


Liberty Energy is proposing a biomass energy plant in Niland California. 
Here is the Chamber of Commerce staff report, a news story, and a public 
comment.

Sludge is controversial no matter what end point is contemplated.  In Niland 
the community is divided. The proposed state-of-the-art Liberty Energy 
facility is catching flak from some people who think it might be bad for 
agriculture.

Huh?  Other parts of California are begging to see an end to land 
application of sludge and an end open air sewage sludge composting sites.  
What is recommended are modern sludge management facilities with 
comprehensive air emissions controls.  Oddly - in Imperial Valley this kind 
of modern plant is being opposed by some new community groups for fear it 
may somehow besmirch the local agricultural operations.

Local sludge practices in the Imperial Valley are appalling.  Some plants 
don't even  have sludge 'treatment'... at Brawley the sewage flows 
unscreened  (ie condoms, tampax, plastics and all) into a lagoon. The water 
is drained off the lagoon and the bottom sludge is scraped up..air 
dried..and trucked to farmland in Arizona where it is land applied as Class 
B-poo/plastic/latex.  The sewage effluent from this minimal process 
wastewater plant flows into surface waters that come to an unhappy end in 
the Salton Sea.

If food safety is the issue then the practice of farm spreading Imperial 
Valley debris-laced undigested lagoon sludge needs some public attention.

Utilizing sewage sludge for biomass energy has several distinct advantages 
over land application:

1. it stops land application of pathogenic, pharmaceutical, and even prion 
infected sludges on farmland- thus protecting food quality, soil quality, 
and community health.

2. it provides energy to the grid that would otherwise come from burning 
fossil fuels

3. it prevents the generation and release of methane and other greenhouse 
gases from decomposing sludge...this helping stop global warming and climate 
change

4.  it sequesters dangerous elements like mercury and dioxin by removing 
them at the stack rather than releasing the mercury into the atmosphere from 
land application or composting.


The politics of poo grind on.




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11-09-2006 -- Sludge permit filed
Thursday, November 9, 2006 1:44 PM PST

STAFF REPORT

Liberty Energy has filed an application with Imperial County for a 
conditional use permit for the construction of a $90 million waste-to-energy 
plant north of Highway 111 near Niland.

The three-unit plant would produce 15 megawatts of electricity through 
gasification of sewage sludge, manure and biomass.

The plant will be named Liberty XX Renewable Energy Power Generating 
Station.

“This facility is being developed in response to concerns over greenhouse 
gas emissions and the requirement for power companies in California to 
procure renewable energy,” said Wilson Nolan, chief executive officer of 
Bakersfield Liberty Energy.

The company has been seeking a location in Southern California for several 
years and began exploring the Niland area last summer after being contacted 
by some local residents.


Staff Report

http://www.elcentrochamber.org/newsmore.php?id=507


////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Sludge takes Top Ten title
Imperial Valley Press El Centro California

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is No. 1 in the top 10 stories of the year as selected 
by the newsroom staff. Our online readers’ ranking is listed at the bottom 
of this story.

By BRIANNA LUSK

Staff Writer

After withdrawing a project previously intended to be built between Brawley 
and Imperial earlier this year, Bakersfield-based Liberty Energy submitted 
another proposal for a sludge-to-energy plant. Foregoing the previous 
location, Liberty focused on the Northend, more specifically, a piece of 
Imperial Irrigation District-owned land northwest of Niland. The 123-acre 
parcel located on English Road was sold to Liberty and soon the company 
submitted a proposal for another sludge-to-energy plant but with one 
important change — the ability to handle steer manure generated by Imperial 
Valley feedlots. Drawing public criticism the previous go-rounds, Liberty 
has garnered attention long before an environmental impact report has been 
generated. The last Liberty project, Liberty X, didn’t come under public 
scrutiny until it went before the Imperial County Planning Commission.

Encouraged by business owners and nonelected community leaders, Liberty 
Chief Executive Officer Wilson Nolan said he was ready to give up on 
building in the Valley until he was asked to reconsider. While the remote 
area is out of sight for most county residents, community organizations like 
Niland Opposes Toxic Waste, and Residents for Health and Safety First have 
cropped up against the project. It could be up to a year before the EIR is 
complete and a public comment period is opened.

The project will then go before the planning commission where it will either 
be approved or have to move onto the county Board of Supervisors for 
approval. Nolan said he believes this project will be successful in the 
Valley while opponents say they will fight the sludge-toenergy plant until 
the proposal dies for good. With an estimated $198 million in economic 
benefit during its first 10 years of existence, the plant could bring a 
substantial amount of revenue to the county. On the other hand, some said no 
amount of money is worth the potential health risks they believe the plant 
would bring. An ongoing controversial topic, the proposed sludge plant is 
sure to continue to make headlines for the year to come.


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Letter to the Editor:

Progress is fine, sludge is not

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

Progress is fine, sludge is not

Imperial Valley Residents for Health and Safety First is a growing group 
whose mission is to protect our air and water quality. We are not against 
progress fully supporting true renewable energy ventures such as solar and 
wind. A project such as Liberty XX’s which pretends to be renewable energy 
is really an incinerator of dangerous sewage sludge with a small amount of 
energy produced relative to the energy consumed in the burning process. The 
energy produced provides political cover from incinerating material 
containing pathogens, carcinogens, toxins and heavy metals such as mercury 
and selenium. While the company claims to be able to remove a high 
percentage of these deadly substances, the resulting pollution is cumulative 
as mercury, for example, does not break down over time.

Our Valley air, which already does not comply with EPA standards, will be 
adversely
affected. Childhood diseases such as asthma will increase as air quality 
decreases. Imperial Valley already has the highest incidence of asthma in 
the nation. We cannot afford to be L.A.’s dumping ground. Water quality will 
also be affected. The company proposes to discharge processed water into the 
Niland drain which empties into the Salton Sea.

While the Farm Bureau is threatening fines to farmers who don’t reduce their 
discharge into the sea, this project uses vast amounts of water which will 
carry salt and toxins into the sea. The company says “wait for the 
Environmental Impact Report (EIR) before acting.” The city councils of 
Calipatria and Westmorland did not wait; they passed resolutions condemning 
the project. We are afraid to trust a greedy county government to be 
objective in safeguarding our health. The company’s previous proposal in 
Imperial was rejected for unspecified reasons. Now, it resurfaces in the 
poorest part of the county, spearheaded by Supervisor Gary Wyatt. A cynic 
would suggest that money is an overriding concern to the county resident’s 
health.

Kern County has voted to stop taking Los Angeles sludge due to the 
horrendous odor they are experiencing. Liberty’s parent company is the 
importer of the sewer sludge. We would like to close with two simple 
questions: If it is such a great project why doesn’t L.A. County want it? 
Why pay to truck it all the way to Imperial Valley?

JIM HARVIE Niland

Editor’s note:

The Farm Bureau does not have the authority to fine farmers for the quality 
of runoff water. The state Regional Water Quality Control Board, which 
oversees the so-called total maximum daily load program, does.

Sludgewatch note:

The letter to the editor is incorrect on a number of points:

1. Kern isn't opposed to sludge due to odor. Kern is opposed to land 
application of sludge to protect the water that is banked in the Kern 
aquifer, and to protect farm soils and crops from sludge application.

2. Fifteen megawatts of power is a significant energy plant...not a fake 
power plant.

3.  The proposed biomass plant has scrubbers that remove the mercury and 
protect the environment.  It is not like old fashioned incinerators from the 
1970s.  Indeed, it is the Imperial Valley open air sludge raking and drying 
that emit mercury into the environment...since these operations don't have 
contained operations with emissions controls.

4. The major air impairment in the Imperial Valley is from agricultural 
activities...tilling the soil in this arid environment allows disturbed 
soils to be windswept into the air causing particulate (PM10) levels to 
increase.  The Imperial Valley open air 'solar drying' sites allow sludge to 
become air-bourne sweeping the gritty crap across the town of El Centro.  
Staff at the site wear goggles...the public just wonder why the air in the 
Walmart parking lot tastes funny.

What is unquestioned in all this is  that the Imperial Valley seems happy 
enough to ship their own shit to smear on hapless communities down the 
highway in Arizona.  The proposed facility would appear to be an improvement 
on local practices...from an environmental, agricultural, and health 
perspective.