Sludge Watch ==> CA -Kern County Officials Ok Holloway Landfill Permit - Sludge

[Maureen Reilly]

Board of Supervisors: Officials OK disputed landfill permit 4-1
BY JAMES BURGER, Californian staff writer
e-mail:jburger at bakersfield.com | Tuesday, Apr 1 2008 5:08 PM
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Gypsum mining corporation H.M. Holloway received the Kern County Board of 
Supervisors' blessing Tuesday to continue operating a landfill near Lost 
Hills.


One supervisor objected because the dump, on 300 acres 11⁄2 miles north of 
Highway 46, would be able to take sewage sludge from outside Kern County.

The dump, crafted out of three abandoned gypsum mining pits, has operated 
for 12 years under various government exemptions from solid waste 
legislation.

H.M. Holloway has taken an average 425 tons of waste each day over that 
time.

But since 2001, the company has been under a state order to get a full 
environmental review of its impacts and obtain a permit to operate as a 
solid waste landfill.

Supervisors gave Holloway a new conditional use permit Tuesday on the 
condition it also gets the state permit.

Supervisor Ray Watson said H.M. Holloway has been around for more than seven 
decades and its gypsum mining operation has done local agri-business a lot 
of good over the years.

The problem now, he said, is how best to fill up the pits created by that 
mining.

The best way to fill the pits created by the mining is to "backfill" them 
with waste as H.M. Holloway has requested, Watson said. Supervisors voted 
4-1 to approve the conditional use permit for Holloway.

Supervisor Michael Rubio voted no, saying it would allow H.M. Holloway to 
take sewage sludge from outside Kern County.

“It looks like I'm going to be the Lone Ranger today,” he said.

Rubio said Kern County, which is fighting to protect its ban on the land 
application of sewage sludge in court, has no business approving a project 
that takes out-of-county sewage sludge.

It sends the message, he said, that Kern County is still the state's dumping 
ground.

“Does Kern County want to become the toxic gold of the state?" he asked.

Holloway will now be allowed to increase the amount of waste it can take to 
2,000 tons a day of fly ash, treated auto shredder waste, lime filter cake, 
treated sewage sludge and sand-blasting waste.

The landfill can take a total of 8.35 million cubic yards of waste.


http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/404700.html