Sludge Watch ==> More on Hinkley - Erin too busy with her international fame...Air District lame

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

The Board of Supervisors didn't cut the size of the facility in 
half....there is no decrease in the allowable tonnage at the site!  This 
isn't a 'compromise'.


Dear Erin,

If you have any loyalty to the people of Hinkley please work with this 
impoverished community ... the people who brought you fame and fortune, to 
make life in Hinkley tolerable. Please help us stop Nursery Products from 
hauling and dumping sludge that will  blow around the desert.

I checked again with Mojave Air District.  Hinkley is a non attainment area 
for PM 10.
And PM 10 is one of the reasons why the South Coast doesn't allow sludge 
open air composting facilities to be built in their airshed.  Mr DeSalvio 
didn't tell the truth when he said that the site didn't need enclosure 
because Hinkley air was so clean it could tolerate the additional pollution 
from the site.

...............................................
.

>From the South Coast Air Quality Monitoring District press release:

www.aqmd.gov/news1/2002/Bs4_05_02.htm

VOCs and ammonia are produced during composting when organic materials such 
as yard wastes and biosolids decompose. VOCs combine in the atmosphere with 
nitrogen oxides from combustion sources to form ozone. Ozone damages deep 
lung tissue and may be linked to long-term health effects. Ammonia combines 
with oxides of nitrogen and sulfur oxides to form nitrate and sulfate 
particles, a component of particulate pollution. Particulate pollution 
degrades visibility and has been linked to increased hospital admissions and 
even premature deaths.

Composting facilities also can be a source of public nuisance from dust and 
odors. During the last two years, AQMD and local enforcement agencies in the 
area have received more than 3,000 such complaints related to compost 
facilities.

Composting operations in the region typically place composting materials in 
large piles or long rows, and with the exception of one facility, compost 
materials are open to the air and their emissions are not controlled. Due to 
the high cost of the most effective controls, AQMD is proposing that 
facilities would implement the following:

For existing co-composting facilities, registration, annual reporting and 
dust controls; for large new facilities, enclosure and aeration of materials 
and venting of emissions to a control system such as a biofilter;

But San Bernardino supervisors refuse to protect Hinkley residents (and 
wildlife) by demanding the same emissions controls on sludge composting 
sites as required by South Coast Air District and San Joaquin Air Districts.
...............................................


http://www.desertdispatch.com/2006/117276164486499.html

Thursday, March 1, 2007
Terms won't hurt contentious composting plant

By AARON AUPPERLEE Staff Writer

New conditions placed on a proposed composting plant near Hinkley may not 
have much impact on the business.

Despite Nursery Products' facility being limited in size and restricted in 
the it can operate, a Nursery Products spokesman said the stipulations 
placed on the proposed facility by the county Board of Supervisors on 
Tuesday will not disrupt the plant's operation.

Brian Lochrie said that Jeff Melberg, president of Nursery Products, is OK 
with the requirements.

"It doesn't impact us from a business aspect," Lochrie said.

The motion made by First District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt upheld the 
November Planning Commission approval of the facility and denied the appeal 
of concerned residents. The motion limited Nursery Products to using only 80 
acres of the 160 acre-site, capped hours of operation from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. 
and required the establishment of a citizens' advisory board. Third District 
Supervisor Dennis Hansberger amended the motion to force Nursery Products to 
install a liner protecting the groundwater based on the Lahontan Re gional 
Water Quality Control Board's recommendation.

The requirements did not come as a surprise to Nursery Products, Lochrie 
said.

"It is something that we anticipated," Lochrie said. "We had planned or it 
to be 80 acres anyway."

According to a document prepared by the county Land Use Services Department, 
a previous condition to the approval of the conditional-use permit granted 
by the county called for only 80 acres to be used for composting. Any growth 
on the site would need approval from the county, the document stated.

Mitzelfelt re-affirmed this condition with his motion on Tuesday.

"If they want to expand, they'll have to come before the county again," he 
said after the meeting. "If there are any impacts, I want to know about 
them."

Lochrie did not know if Nursery Products has plans to expand on the Hawes 
site if the facility does open there. He said that future expansion of the 
site would be based on the expansion of the business, something he could not 
predict. If Nursery Products decides to expand, he said they would go before 
the county again. However, he said the company never intended on composting 
on the entire 160 acres purchased.

Hinkley activist Norman Diaz does not see the space limitation as a good 
thing.

"It doesn't help us at all," he said. "It makes it worse."

Diaz said that even though the board limited the amount of space Nursery 
Products can compost on, they did not limit the amount of sludge the company 
can truck to the facility. Diaz fears the space limitations will create 
higher piles as Nursery Products tries to squeeze into a smaller space.

Nursery Products also asked Diaz to serve on the citizens' advisory board 
created by the supervisors. Diaz does not think such a board is necessary.

"It's not going to be needed because I'm going to beat this thing before it 
gets to that point," he said.

As for the limits placed on hours of operation, Lochrie said the company 
could work with that as well. Initial project descriptions state the 
facility would conduct normal operations between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. 
Wastewater treatment plants, he said, normally operate around the clock. The 
restrictions placed on the composting site's hours of operation would only 
impact when biosolids could be dropped off, he said.

David Zook, as pokesman for Mitzelfelt, said the added restrictions would be 
monitored by the code enforcement division of the Land Use Services de par 
tment. He said Mitzelfelt added the requirements to protect the area and the 
surrounding citizens.

"It gives us a little more control over the project," he said. "If the 
company does not abide by the conditions, the county can pull their permit."

As for the other conditions of paving the access road, required by the 
Planning Commission, and installing a liner, Lochrie said it would add to 
the cost of operation but did not know by how much.



http://www.desertdispatch.com/2006/117276159612498.html


   Environmental advocate Erin Brockovich applauds unity of Hinkley
   residents

Famed environmental advocate Erin Brockovich applauded the people of 
Hinkley's resolve and unity and called the Board of Supervisors' decision a 
compromise after hearing the result from Tuesday's meeting.

"I don't see this as a total victory, and I don't see this as a total 
defeat," Brockovich said.

She said the concessions made by the board - cutting the site in half, 
limiting hours of operation, requiring a citizens' advisory board and 
requiring a liner - show the board did listen to some degree to the concerns 
of Hinkley residents.

Although unable to attend the meeting, Brockovich submitted a letter to the 
board. Roberta Walker, a Hinkley resident and the first named party in the 
Pacific Gas and Electric Chromium 6 lawsuit, read the letter. Brockovich's 
involvement in the lawsuit have made her and Walker close friends. 
Brockovich said it was fitting that Walker read her letter.

"Please take a moment to visualize, put yourself in their shoes," Walker 
read. "They want open air. They don't want open-air sludge anywhere near 
their homes."

Brockovich she had prior commitments that kept her from the meeting and that 
she is preparing to leave the country on an international lecture tour. She 
said in her lectures, she praises the people of Hinkley.

"They are a shining example of what can happen when a people unite," she 
said.