Sludge Watch ==> Oregon - farms will not be spread with sludge

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

This is a win for those opposed to the agricultural disposal of sewage 
sludge.
Community concern has stopped these proposed application sites.
Just a quick word about the last sentence in this story...which suggests 
that farms have a right to be spread with sludge.

They do not.
Farms have no 'right to sludge'.  The waste haulers may be awarded permits 
to spread sludge but that does not create any farmer 'entitlement' to 
receive sludge, as I understand the law.
The farmer is not party to the sludge permit, and the waste hauler, the 
sludge source wastewater municipality, and the regulator may stop the land 
application of sludge on a site.

  The farmer is not 'entitled' to receive sludge.  (Let me know if there is 
law in some states that states this or states otherwise...Admin)

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


http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071027/NEWS/710270345/1001

Sites won't be fertilize with biosolids

Pollution control facility was to use materials on fields

JUSTIN MUCH
Statesman Journal

October 27, 2007

Golden Valley Farms near Hopewell will have to find a different source of 
fertilizer.

The City of Salem's Willow Lake Water Pollution Control Facility will 
scratch plans to apply biosolids on two Golden Valley grass-seed fields in 
Hopewell. Biosolids are organic solids derived from the treatment of 
domestic wastewater and used as soil enhancers.

After more than 100 people attended a public hearing Thursday night at 
Walker Middle School in West Salem, Plant Manager Francis Kessler said the 
application will be withdrawn.

"We will write a formal request to withdraw the (permit) request on Monday 
morning," Kessler said Friday. The original permit application was submitted 
to the state Department of Environmental Quality.

Officials at Willow Lake wanted to apply biosolids on two grass-seed fields, 
the Batz and Lone Oak sites, belonging to Golden Valley Farms.

Kessler said the meeting was a courtesy hearing, not required by law, but 
one he deemed necessary given the number and extent of concerns he sensed 
with the application process for those specific sites. Willow Lake, which 
has been processing biosolids for nearly 40 years, has scores of active 
biosolid- application sites, and Kessler estimated there could be hundreds 
of total sites -- active and inactive -- where use is permitted.

The Batz and Lone Oak fields have about a dozen abutting neighbors in 
Yamhill County, but Thursday's comments and concerns reached a broader 
geography. Among them were residents in Polk County, area dairy farmers, 
people from municipalities other than Hopewell and staff and students at 
Western Mennonite School. A total of 37 oral comments were submitted at the 
Thursday session.

"Over the course of the meeting it became obvious that there were more 
people in the vicinity of the site ... who believed it would affect their 
area," Kessler said.

Concerns included health hazards involved with water runoff, soil erosion, 
wind-stirred particles swept up when the fields are worked, habitat damage 
and contamination of well water. But Kessler said that in gathering 
testimony and gauging perceptions, it was indicated by those in attendance 
that there would be no long-term value to the city in pursuing the permit, 
and Golden Valley Farms likely would have to forfeit its rights for that 
particular use of its farmland.

jmuch at StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6736