Sludge Watch ==> Virginia - 'Sludge Tests a Fig Leaf' - sludge spread before test results return

[Maureen Reilly]

McCarthy: Sludge test is a 'fig leaf'
By: Kevin Allen
03/07/2007

What protection does a sewage sludge test provide if the substance can still 
be applied to land before the test results are ready?


A committee charged with writing an ordinance to regulate the use of sludge 
in Rappahannock County is asking that exact question after a meeting on Feb. 
26.


County leaders have planned to employ a local monitor to oversee 
applications from landowners who want to use sludge - a combination of human 
and industrial waste that is treated to reduce the prevalence of 
disease-causing bacteria - in place of commercially produced fertilizer. The 
monitor will be able to review sites and applications and take samples of 
the sludge set to be used and submit those samples for testing.

But state regulations still allow sludge to be spread on the land between 
the time the sample is taken and when the test results come in. If an 
analysis finds the sludge is acidic or contains heavy metals or other 
harmful chemicals, it is already in the soil.

Commonwealth's Attorney Peter Luke cut to the chase at the five-person 
committee's most recent gathering at the Rappahannock County Courthouse.

"What good does that test do you in the real world?" Luke asked Susan 
Trumbo, vice president of Recyc Systems.

County Administrator John McCarthy asked Trumbo what remedies are available 
if sludge that has already been applied is tested and found to contain 
harmful substances or have an acceptable pH.

In cases of low pH, which indicates an acidic composition, Trumbo said lime 
can be applied to a field to raise the pH. She also said certain crops can 
be planted to take up other pollutants, and that method is being used on 
several toxic waste sites around the United States.

Trumbo said high levels of certain toxins, like arsenic, will cause a 
treatment plant to crash, preventing the sludge from ever making it out of 
the facility and onto fields.

"I'm aware of treatment plants that have crashed" for such reasons, Trumbo 
said.

"There are a lot of chemicals that aren't going to make it crash," countered 
Tim Bondelid, RappFLOW's representative on the committee.

In extreme cases, Trumbo said, soil can be excavated, but that is not done 
very often.

Trumbo said Recyc has had one situation where sludge was applied to a field 
and the soil later needed to be excavated. In that instance, a landowner had 
concealed a residential well he considered to be an eyesore, and sludge was 
unknowingly applied to land near the well.

Rick Koehler, who represents the Rappahannock League for Environmental 
Protection on the committee, asked who is responsible for the cost of 
excavating soil in those situations. Trumbo said the cost will be passed on 
to the plant that generates the sludge.

"Ultimately, the generator is responsible for the quality of the material," 
she said.

Trumbo is the biosolids industry's only representative on the five-person 
committee, and she seemed to become frustrated with the testing issue as she 
was peppered with questions from Bondelid, Koehler, Luke and McCarthy.

"I'm not getting at what chemical, or how or who's fault. It's just the 
remedy of if it's found," McCarthy said. "We're going to have to point out 
to people that ... this is a fig leaf that as a practical matter, it is 
going to have very little real consequence."

McCarthy reiterated that if a sludge sample is taken immediately before land 
application, the test will come back too late to prevent a harmful batch of 
sludge from being spread on a field.

Luke said there is one consequence: An applier can be forbidden from 
applying further in an area if the company has violated the county's sludge 
ordinance in the past.



County in question

Trumbo has said several parts of the sludge ordinance as it is currently 
written overstep a county's authority to regulate sludge application. 
Namely, she disagrees with Luke's use of the Chesapeake Bay Act.

Luke said the Bay Act allows counties in the Bay watershed to establish a 
100-foot vegetated buffer requirement around waters of "exceptional 
quality."

"All the waters in Rappahannock ought to be able to qualify," he said.

Trumbo disagreed.

"We work in counties that are required to follow the Chesapeake Bay Act," 
including Essex, Surry and Richmond counties in the Tidewater region of 
Virginia, she said, "and none of the these counties have a 100-foot buffer 
[requirement]."

Luke and Trumbo agreed to disagree on the legal authority contained in the 
Bay Act.

Other provisions, such as the Endangered Species Act, total maximum daily 
load plans and fish consumption advisories, will also be included in the 
ordinance as factors the county will bring to the Virginia Department of 
Environmental Quality prior to a permit for sludge application being issued.

Luke noted that TMDLs are set by the DEQ, so the department should not 
approve an activity that would cause a TMDL to be exceeded.



The homestretch

The sludge committee has been set a few weeks behind schedule after winter 
weather led their past two meeting dates to be canceled. But McCarthy said 
they have reached the "homestretch."

The committee's next meeting is scheduled for April 6, and McCarthy said he 
hopes the ordinance will be ready for the County Board of Supervisors after 
that gathering. Luke said he wants the ordinance to be adopted by July 1, 
when new sludge legislation from the General Assembly is scheduled to take 
effect.

The group has been working on the ordinance since October, shortly after two 
Rappahannock landowners applied in September to have sludge spread on their 
properties.

Rappahannock has had a ban on sludge application since 1994, but state law 
allows the activity and the state law would likely supersede the county's 
ban.

Following a public outcry, both landowners withdrew their permit 
applications. But the issue remained unresolved, and the committee is trying 
to maintain restrictions on sludge in the county while working within state 
rules.

http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab4.cfm?newsid=18053283&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=506086&rfi=6