Sludge Watch ==> Yakima Sludge - Tiny La Paz County told to pay $12M

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

This is a shocking decision.  Yakima has a dreadful history of regulatory 
non compliance, including walking out on their bill from years of violations 
when they were in business in Kern County.

While Jim Willett was telling the California Water Board that he couldn't 
afford to pay his fines, he was donating money to Parker to fix the 
children's swimming pool...in an effort that many see as an attempt at 
influencing the pool of people from whom the jury at the Yakima trial would 
be drawn.


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Safford officials called to testify in La Paz
Their advice could have saved county millions

By Aimee Staten, Managing Editor Tuesday, September 25, 2007

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three years ago, Safford City Manager Huey Long left La Paz County with 
advice to the Board of Supervisors that, if heeded, could have saved it 
millions of dollars.

His direction mirrored that of Safford Utilities Director Jay Howe’s: “Don’t 
break the contract.”

Both men were once public officials in La Paz County. Howe was an elected 
supervisor; Long was the county administrator who was hired a couple of 
years into Howe’s term.

La Paz County became embroiled in litigation with the Yakima Company, a 
sludge-drying facility, several years ago. The county claimed the company 
breached its 25-year contract by not providing a closure plan to return the 
used property to its original condition, by not providing a performance bond 
and by disregarding safety and health regulations.

On Sept. 4, 2007, a jury saw the situation differently and awarded Yakima 
$9.2 million in settlement money and $1 million and $1.8 million in 
attorneys’ fees and back taxes.

None of the costs were covered by the county’s insurance, a fact that was 
pointed out to the board in 2004 by a letter from the Arizona Counties 
Insurance Pool.

“This is a classic example of the majority of the board ignoring staff, 
legal counsel, the judge and even the insurance carrier,” Long said in a 
recent interview with the Courier.

The trial that ended this month was not the first time the matter had been 
before a judge. It was the fifth time. On every occasion, starting in 2002, 
the board’s request that the court allow the county to terminate the 
agreement and close down Yakima was denied.

According to Glenn Hallman, Yakima’s attorney, the company submitted a 
closure plan shortly after the original agreement was signed in November 
2002. “When Yakima first began its operations there were some unforeseen 
start-up problems with drying and processing the sludge,” Hallman told the 
jury. “. . . Suffice it to say, they weren’t major problems, and they didn’t 
last long.”

Nevertheless, the county refused to accept the plan and filed a lawsuit to 
terminate the agreement, Hall-man said.

When that attempt failed, the county claimed it could terminate the 
agreement because no bond had been posted. Hallman said, “Basically, the 
supervisors put Yakima in the position of trying to get a bonding company to 
guarantee completely unknown performance.”

Although the agreement called for a bond with an annual term, the board of 
supervisors refused to accept it because it wanted a 25-year bond. “There is 
no such thing,” Long said. “Bonds can only be renewed annually.”

Even after the closure plan and performance bond were posted in 2003, the 
county continued to try to terminate the agreement. Hallman presented 
evidence of use of the sludge for public purposes, which would have allowed 
the company to use hundreds of acres of Bureau of Land Management property, 
and revenue for the county of $200,000 a year.

In 2005, the county sent a letter to the Los Angeles County Sanitary 
District, a customer of Yakima’s, saying it was terminating its agreement in 
September. As a result of that letter, the Los Angeles district did not 
renew its contract with Yakima, Hallman said. The Los Angeles district had 
also conducted monthly inspections of the Arizona site. Yakima passed each 
of the inspections, Long said.

“I observed an absolutely relentless campaign to terminate that agreement — 
no matter what,” Long said. The county has not hired a county administrator 
since Long’s resignation in 2004.

Jay Howe, the supervisor who worked to bring the company to the county for 
economic purposes, said Yakima never had a problem it wasn’t willing to fix. 
“I have never worked with anyone who was so diligent to respond,” he said of 
Jim Willett, owner of Yakima.

Howe lost the next election to Mary Scott, who called him “Supervisor 
Sludge.”

Both Howe and Long were subpoenaed to testify in the trial that ended this 
month. Long said La Paz County is appealing the jury’s decision.



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Here is a Sludge Watch report from a few years ago:

La Paz County Arizona versus Yakima Sludge

The County of La Paz in West Arizona has been trying to close a sludge
drying operation at the La Paz County Landfill for the past two years.  To
the dismay of local residents, sewage sludge from Los Angeles County
California is trucked though the community of Quartzsite and dropped off at
the Yakima facility a few miles north of town.

Things started to go bad shortly after the first loads of sludge arrived in
the fall of 2002.  The history of noncompliance is found in the court
documents at the County offices in Parker.

Yakima started operations without registering with the Arizona Department
of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) as a 'Biosolids Processing Facility'.

Yakima failed to obtain an Aquifer Protection Permit from ADEQ.

Yakima didn't obtain an Arizona Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
Permit from ADEQ.

Yakima began operation without constructing containment berms.

Yakima didn't have a paved road to the site.

Yakima didn't build the needed storm water detention pond.

Yakima didn't have water tanks as per the agreement.

Yakima didn't have the needed equipment to do the job.

Yakima didn't obtain all needed insurance.

Yakima didn't submit a closure plan to La Paz County.

Yakima didn't construct the perimeter fence for containment.

Yakima failed to obtain a performance bond within sixty days of the
execution of the agreement.

Yakima failed to form sludge windrows of the proper size.

Yakima failed to meet the sludge storage time limits.

Yakima were stockpiling processed sludge for more than 7 days (the limit in
the contract).

Yakima received and processed sludge during wet weather.

Yakima received and processed sludge when winds were over 20 miles per hour.

Yakima failed to implement adequate vector control operations (flies etc).

Yakima failed to turn the windrows every 72 hours to ensure proper
processing.

Yakima failed to remit payments to the lanfill operator.

Yakima continued to operate the facility without obtaining an Aquifer
Protection Permit (they still don't have one!).

And the list goes on.....

The curious part of this law suit is that it is still before the courts.
The La Paz County lawyers have spelled out all the breaches in the contract
listed above and asked the Court to make Yakima close the facility and pay
damages.  At a minumim they ask that the operations stop until Yakima is in
compliance with the contract and with Arizona state law.

But the judge has not yet made a finding in favor of La Paz County for the
protection of its citizens against the noncompliant practices of Yakima.

So Quartzsite and surrounding communties remain sludge infested.  The
sludge comes from California and gets 'processed' in Arizona. Then it goes
back across state borders into California for land application (if it
leaves the Yakima site at all).  So now Blythe and Riverside County in
California are getting these sludges.  But is anyone checking to make sure
the sludge meets California land application standards?

California has asked the Arizona to 'certify' that this Yakima sludge meets
the California sludge standards.  But ADEQ refuses to certify Yakima
sludge. With the finger pointing between juridictions Yakima may be eluding
regulatory requirements altogether.

Who is testing Yakima sludge?  Trucks arrive in La Paz County
Landfill...who knows where they come from and what they contain?  The
County of La Paz doesn't know where the sludge comes from....and no one
seems to be checking on what leaves the facility.

So Blythe and Riverside communities need to join up with the community of
Quartzsite to stop the sludge.

There are a few ways to stop the sludge...California should be compelled
manage its sewer sludge in the county where it is generated...through the
State laws at the ADEQ .... through the enforcement of the La Paz County
contract with Yakima.... or by County or municipal ordinance.

First off...California should keep its wastes in California.  Southern
Califonia seems to think their sludge is too contaminated and disgusting to
process at home. A Megalopolis like Los Angeles shouldn't be foisting their
toilet waste on little towns like Quartzite.

Secondly: Residents could put put pressure on the ADEQ to enforce Arizona
state law and not allow Yakima to continue hauling in sludge to a facility
that has no Aquifer Protection Plan.  Why didn't Arizona law kick-in and
stop Yakima when they didn't register, when they didn't protect the
groundwater, when they didn't have the needed state permits?  Here it is
three years later and the ADEQ is starting to think about having a public
consultation on whether to approve a Yakima Aquifer Protection permit.

Residents should follow the County court case with interest. As the court
documents say:

La Paz County prays for relief against Yakima Compost and asks the Court to
shut down the facility forthwith...or at least make them stop operations
until they meet their obligations under the contract and under law.

When will the judge say 'Enough is enough'?

And maybe in the meanwhile its time for Quartzsite to pass a municpal
ordinance saying no to sludge.


M Reilly



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///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Admin

It is now known that Riverside County California has a citation against
Yakima since
Yakima violated the Riverside County sludge ordinance, failing to register
and applying
sludge to fields it had not registered.

It has also come to light that Yakima, now claiming to compost rather than
solar dry the
sludge from Los Angeles County at the La Paz AZ site, has failed to
appropriately test the windrows
for temperature, has failed to use the proper testing protocols for
pathogens, and failed
to accurately label the windrows of 'composting' sludge.