Sludge Watch ==> PA Sludge - When the law doesn't reflect the will of the people

[Maureen Reilly]

October 1, 2007



Citizens of East Brunswick are made of tough stuff


Lehighton Times News, Pennsylvania


http://www.tnonline.com/node/221624





Dear Editor:

It began with a single issue - sewage sludge. It rapidly grew into a 
community awakening of collective consciousness when we asked, "Why isn't 
the law on our side?" and "What has happened to our Democracy?"

Our citizens clearly and passionately rejected the idea of toxic sewage 
sludge being dumped near our families, homes, farms, rivers or anywhere in 
our beloved rural community. Logically, concerned residents looked for 
assistance and protection from our state and federal agencies and 
legislators. But we received no help. Why?

I'll tell you. Long before we knew about the pending threat to our health, 
families and environment, the government agencies and legislators met with 
corporate-backed lobbyists and their legal teams to strike up a compromise 
on what amount of health risk and environmental harm citizens in rural 
communities would be forced to accept.

To ensure no paltry citizen or virtuous local official would dare challenge 
these rules; they were carefully crafted to protect the sludge corporations 
and their profitable method of sewage disposal. They were written to squelch 
any attempt at self governance by people living in countryside communities 
who might actually believe they have a RIGHT to protect their families.

The same agencies that are in place to protect human health and environment 
and the same legislators that we put in office traded our rights for a 
regulatory system that "permits" toxic sewage sludge. They made it legal for 
the sludge corporation to contaminate our community to a certain "parts per 
billion" and at a certain "loading rate".

These deceitful legislative concessions entitled, "ACRE (Act 38 of 2005)", 
"The Solid Waste Management Act" and "The Nutrient Management Act", now 
trump the Declaration of Independence and the Pennsylvania Constitution.

Predictably, the sludge corporations and their allies, knowing they 
deliberately designed the laws to aide in this tyranny against the people, 
have enlisted the help of the PA Attorney General to attack the residents of 
East Brunswick. Although it is completely contradictory to the Attorney 
General's pledge to "Protect Pennsylvania Families", he has threatened the 
residents of East Brunswick with a lawsuit. He has told our citizens that we 
"have no authority" to enact an ordinance to protect our families and 
environment.

You might ask, how is it possible that the people in this community "have no 
authority" to secure our rights and make democratic decisions about our 
health, safety or quality of life?

In East Brunswick, we have stopped asking questions and started demanding 
answers. We've taken on the philosophy of a great American hero and advocate 
of democracy and self government, Thomas Paine. "Reason obeys itself; and 
ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it."

The citizens of East Brunswick are unwilling to submit to what our 
legislators and government agencies have deemed to be a bearable amount of 
toxins and pollutants. More importantly, we're not willing to surrender our 
right to make local decisions about the community in which we live.

A law against the consent of the people is an unjust law. American history 
has taught us that. We are challenging an unjust law. We are leaving 
politics to the politicians and standing together as a community on the side 
of morals, ethics and justice. We're liberating the self-governance we were 
intended to have in East Brunswick before it was illegitimately and unjustly 
stolen from us.

Pennsylvania already holds an exalted place in the history of American 
liberty and freedom. We welcome other communities to join East Brunswick in 
our fight for democracy and contribute to that legacy.

Annette Etchberger

New Ringgold