Sludge Watch ==> Environmental Groups file suit against Hinkley open air 'Sludge Compost" site

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

The Environmental Impact Report on this project didn't take many many issues 
into account.
It is the worst EIR I have ever seen.  Did you know that the proposal is to 
allow untreated sewage (known as 'septage' or hauled sewage) to the site?

The company hasn't even asked the EPA if they are allowed to use a 'sub 
standard' process to 'compost'.  The Part 503 regulations set out the 
process requirements for composting sewage sludge.  Nursery Products has 
said they may not use the approved methods, but use some new procedures that 
have never been evaluated by the EPA Pathogen Equivalency committee.

The last site run by Nursery Products caused huge swarms of flies and 
noxtious odors, dust, and offsite trash, and was court - ordered closed as a 
health risk.  So Hinkley is concerned that a facility that is now 10 to 12 
times bigger may cause truly terrible off site impacts.  Nursery Products is 
impudent and arrogant enough to say they will pursue at the Hinkley site the 
same substandard  procedures that caused terrible problems in the last site 
in Adelanto.

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

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-hinkley30mar30,1,5130565.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california

Suit filed over sludge composting plant
Hinkley residents and environmental groups want to force the county to 
enclose the planned facility and filter the odors.
By Sara Lin
Times Staff Writer

March 30, 2007

Environmentalists and high-desert residents trying to stop an open-air 
sewage sludge composting plant from being built near Hinkley filed a lawsuit 
Thursday against San Bernardino County, alleging that it violated state 
environmental laws in approving the facility.

In February, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in favor of the 
project despite strong objections by residents worried about potential 
health hazards.

"We felt the Board of Supervisors didn't listen to us," said Norman Diaz of 
helphinkley.org, a citizens group fighting the project. "As a community, we 
have complete opposition to this thing. We told them that every possible way 
we could think of, from protests to letters to traveling down there to speak 
to them."

The lawsuit, filed in San Bernardino County Superior Court, alleges that the 
county approved the composting plant without fully analyzing its potential 
impact on air quality and public health. The suit also contends that the 
project doesn't adequately protect the threatened desert tortoise and the 
Mojave ground squirrel.

Apple Valley-based Nursery Products LLC plans to compost sludge — the 
cake-like goop left over after raw sewage is treated at a sanitation plant — 
on 80 acres of Mojave Desert about eight miles outside Hinkley.

Nursery Products representatives said the county did a thorough job in 
evaluating the project. "All of these issues were raised a long, long time 
ago, and unfortunately there's no science behind them. The science shows the 
project is safe," said Christopher Seney, operations manager for Nursery 
Products.

Hinkley was made famous by activist Erin Brockovich, who helped force 
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to pay a multimillion-dollar settlement for 
allegedly polluting the town's groundwater. Residents blamed serious health 
problems on the tainted water. Her successful fight was made into the movie 
"Erin Brockovich," starring Julia Roberts.

Residents of Hinkley and nearby Barstow — communities that are downwind of 
the proposed facility — fear strong desert winds will blow odors and 
bacteria-laden dust into the air.

But Alan Rubin, a former senior scientist for the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, had testified before the county that residents' fears 
about getting sick from being downwind were unfounded. Under the current 
plan, San Bernardino and Riverside counties could unload 400,000 tons of 
sludge per year at the facility.

The three groups that sued — helphinkley.org, the Center for Biological 
Diversity and the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment — said their 
goal is not to stop the sludge composting plant, but rather to force the 
county to enclose the facility and filter the odors. Nursery Products 
officials have said that option is too expensive.

A lawyer for San Bernardino County said he had not seen the lawsuit and 
could not comment.

*


Click here to see the story and the photos
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-hinkley30mar30,1,5130565.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california