Sludge Watch ==> Venture / Santa Paula get it wrong - ONLY LAND APPLICATION BANNED IN KERN

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

The Ventura Star got it wrong
The Santa Paula Times got it wrong.

Both papers state that Kern County has banned the importation of sewage 
sludge.
Kern County has not banned imported sludge.
They banned THE LAND APPLICATION OF SEWAGE SLUDGE.

Sludges can still be brought into Kern for processing, landfilling, etc.
Here is the wording of the Kern ordinance:
http://keepkernclean.com/Sludge_Initiative_Measure.pdf
...........................

Ventura County Supervisors to consider Toland Landfill sewer sludge 
operation

By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Published:  July 20, 2007

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors will hear an appeal from area 
ranchers and farmers on the Planning Commission’s denial of their request 
that the proposed project to process sludge at the Toland Road Landfill be 
studied further or denied.

By Peggy Kelly

Santa Paula Times

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors will hear an appeal from area 
ranchers and farmers on the Planning Commission’s denial of their request 
that the proposed project to process sludge at the Toland Road Landfill be 
studied further or denied. The Supervisors will consider the appeal on July 
24 at 1:30 p.m. at the Ventura County Government Center, 800 S. Victoria 
Ave., Ventura.

During the day-long Planning Commission hearing held June 28, a county 
planner told commissioners that “the key” to the project is that it’s a 
“local solution to a local problem,” after Kern County voters last year 
banned the importation of sludge.

The ban takes effect in August 2008, said county Planner Scott Ellison, and 
“At that point Ventura County will not have a good place to dispose of their 
biosolids... we have been exporting our sewage sludge and making it their 
problem.” In response, Ellison noted, “the Ventura Regional Sanitation 
District decided to come up with a local solution.”

That local solution is now potentially the Santa Clara River Valley’s 
problem, said area rancher Gordon Kimball who testified at the hearing. 
Santa Paula and Fillmore residents, as well as Santa Clara School 
administrators and parents, attended the hearing for the Minor Modification 
of the existing CUP issued to the VRSD in the mid-1990s to expand landfill 
operations.

VRSD Attorney Mark Zirbel told commissioners that the proposed project would 
have a “very small working face” at the landfill. As an example, he noted 
that 80 tons of 20 percent solids, 80 percent water sewage sludge would be 
“cooked down to 20 tons” that would used as cover on a “very small portion 
of the landfill... the next day it’s buried forever.”

The project - up to four dryer units that would operate 24/7, and 15 
electric turbines - would be fully regulated, there would be “no runoff of 
water... my engineering staff knows what they are doing.” According to the 
VRSD mitigation report, up to 7,000 tons of sewer sludge a month will be 
taken to the Toland Landfill, located mid-way between Santa Paula and 
Fillmore.

Kimball told commissioners that The Toland Group appealed “because we have 
serious concerns that led to approval,” and that the group was “astonished 
at the vagueness” of much of the application. The VRSD conducted their own 
study and adopted the results, but “there is not an Environmental Impact 
Review for this project.... We believe it is the responsibility” of the 
county planning department to “be responsible” and ensure that the permit is 
“clear, concise and enforceable. Just because the (document) says there 
won’t be impacts does not mean there won’t be.”

Kimball said an example is the mandated truck monitoring during blackout 
traffic periods - created due to concerns of Santa Clara School impacts - 
conducted by the VRSD. “We see people from the landfill monitoring as trucks 
make turns” that are banned. Documentation notes monitoring requirements, 
but “there is absolutely no mention of enforcement, and a condition without 
enforcement is not a condition.”

Also an issue is the ban on importation of sludge from out of county that a 
permit condition does not make explicit, said Kimball. Language is also 
missing to enforce limitations on the tons of sludge processed per day, as 
well as to hold sludge to Class A standards.

“The applicant always referred to this as a drying process, showed us dry 
pellets that were feather-like and completely dry... imagine our surprise 
that approximately 25 percent water will be taken to the refuse column,” the 
first time the issue had been mentioned in 18 months of discussions. 
Subsequently, the amount of water to receive post-treatment is not defined, 
Kimball added.

Truck traffic, and measures that will “control, not the same as eliminate, 
odors,” are not addressed fully in the permit. “Why is this not clear and 
definitive?” A previous comment that throughout the state wastewater 
treatment plants operate next to agricultural lands is true, said Kimball, 
but also true are recent problems with contaminated crops.

Deanne Hobson, who serves on the Santa Clara School Board of Trustees, said 
that truck traffic blackout periods imposed by the VRSD have been ignored, 
and that there are no provisions for a similar blackout during kindergarten 
pickup periods.

Rancher Carol Hardison noted that wet sewer sludge contains pathogens, and 
that she has learned that the testing of Toland Landfill air and water 
quality is done at a Piru area station. “They might be able to do it locally 
so we’ll know what the real results are,” Hardison said.

Information about Santa Ana and other winds is false, said rancher Ken 
Chapman, who operates a weather station used by government agencies. “There 
are three modes of transport for pollutants” - water, aerosol and fugitive 
dust. “I tell you a 60 mph wind will transport a significant amount of 
fugitive dust” such as from dried sludge, which contains 70 percent 
pathogens including those not detectable but highly dangerous. Chapman also 
questioned the source of sludge, noting that the annual tonnage projections 
provided by the VRSD are high above the tonnage created in the county.

http://www.santapaulatimes.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/14140/Ventura_County_Supervisors_to_consider_Toland_Landfill_sewer_sludge_operation.html