Sludge Watch ==> Virginia - Biosolids Panel off to a crooked start

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Can you ever trust a 'Biosolids Expert Panel'.  Well...sometimes you can.
Here in Ontario the Ontario Government appointed an 'Expert Panel' to 
evaluate the use of paper mill sludge to build 'berms' ... and the panel 
advised the government to manage the paper sludge and the paper sludge 
mixtures as 'Waste' under provincial permit rather than allowing the 
material to be exempt from permit requiements.

The Ontario Government has turned a deaf ear on its experts.
I guess their ears are all open to Courtice Auto Wreckers and Ontario 
Disposal and Atlantic Packaging instead.

But the look of Virginia 'Biosolids Expert Panel' is screwy from the get-go.
They have appointed the Al Rubin, former EPA Biosolids Coordinator now  
tireless sludge-tout-industry-consultant - as one of their two 'citizen 
reps' on the panel.

His appointment doesn't bode well for the objectivity of this panel, since 
there is clearly no sincere attempt at public representation.

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http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=LNA%2FMGArticle%2FLNA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173352876194&path=!news!opinion


Biosolids Panel Is the Way to Go


Lynchburg News & Advance
September 24, 2007


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After long last, Virginia finally appears to be on the proper path to deal 
with the ever-present issue of biosolids.

Just a week ago, a panel of experts convened in Richmond to discuss the 
health and safety issues swirling around biosolids and their application to 
farmland in Virginia. The panel’s goal is to develop a statewide approach 
to dealing with the industry.

Del. Kathy Byron, a Central Virginia Republican in the House of Delegates, 
pushed through a resolution creating the panel during the 2007 session of 
the General Assembly as part of a broader package of measures dealing with 
the biosolids industry. Central Virginia has been at the center of the 
sludge storm for much of this decade since companies began marketing 
biosolids to farmers as free fertilizer.

Sludge, biosolids, whatever you want to call it, is basically the matter 
left over at the end of the sewage treatment process. And there’s a lot of 
it left over in the nation’s sewage treatment plants that needs to go 
somewhere.

Central Virginia has been ground zero of the fight against biosolids, which 
foes claim are dangerous to the environment, humans and wildlife. Several 
years ago, Appomattox County passed an ordinance banning the application of 
sludge on farmland in the county, but lost a court fight with the industry 
and wound up having to pay the industry’s legal fees. State courts ruled 
against Appomattox for one simple reason: In Virginia, the state government 
has said it’s OK to apply biosolids and local government cannot pass 
ordinances that run contrary to state law.

That didn’t stop biosolids foes in Campbell County from trying to get the 
Board of Supervisors to do just that, on the shaky legal basis that 
corporations have no constitutional rights. Allies in Nelson and Bedford 
counties were poised to jump on that bandwagon, but fortunately Campbell’s 
elected officials refused to give in to the activists’ pressure.

Bedford County officials were also dealing with biosolids storage pads 
popping up in the county that were outside the purview of local ordinances.

That’s when the area’s delegation to the General Assembly stepped up to 
the plate.

State Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, brokered a deal with the industry to 
close the two controversial storage sites in Bedford County prior to the 
enactment of his bill giving local governments power to regulate such sites. 
The local delegation was also successful in pushing through legislation 
transferring control of the industry in Virginia from the Department of 
Health to the Department Environmental Quality, a major step in toughening 
control of the application process.

Byron’s panel of experts is another major step in Virginia’s crafting of 
statewide approach to biosolids.

On the panel are experts from across the political and scientific spectrum, 
including Lynchburger Preston Bryant, the state’s secretary of Natural 
Resources. There are doctors, sanitation experts, engineers and biologists.

The panel’s main task will be sort biosolids fact from sludge fiction. 
They’ll be examining peer-reviewed scientific studies, conducting their 
own and querying industry and government experts, all with the goal of 
developing a statewide policy to guide government in dealing with the 
industry.

The next 15 months will be busy ones for the panel; their first report is 
due at the end of November with the final study due by November 2008.

We doubt the biosolids industry and sludge foes will ever see eye-to-eye, 
but we hope the final report will be a scientifically bulletproof study that 
will serve the best interests of all Virginia citizens.