Sludge Watch ==> Hinkley Calif - PG&E settles Chromium 6 lawsuit - now sludge lawsuit

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

We are still waiting to hear the outcome of the lawsuit as to whether San 
Bernardino County did an adequate Environmental Impact Report (EIR)  on the 
proposal to make a piece of prime Desert Tortoise recovery habitat into a 15 
foot high pile of decomposing sewage sludge - the "Nursery Products" sludge 
facility.  The site is in Hinkley, California..the little town made famous 
by the movie Erin Brokovich.

PG&E contaminated the neighborhood with Chromium 6...causing widespread 
illness.  Now it is the proposed site of a sewage sludge open-air compost 
facility.

Just a note...under the Part 503 sludge regs you would not be allowed to 
spread even a little bit of sewage sludge in this area due to the presence 
of endangered and at risk species.  So if sludge is too toxic to spread even 
a teensy bit, why would they be allowed to bring 700,000 tons of it and pile 
it up on the site?

The Desert Tortoise is a threatened species.  Iin the West Mojave Desert it 
is already dying from a deadly form of mycoplasma pneumonia. See the 
research paper below.  Pneumonia is often seen in people next to sludge 
spreading sites.

The people of Hinkley are already afflicted and endangered by PG&E.  It 
seems cruel to subject them, and the Desert Tortoise, to more environmental 
toxins by allowing this open air facility - with no environmental controls, 
no containment of toxins.
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Part 503 sludge regs:

503.14   Management practices.
top
(a) Bulk sewage sludge shall not be applied to the land if it is likely to 
adversely affect a threatened or endangered species listed under section 4 
of the Endangered Species Act or its designated critical habitat.

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title40/40cfr503_main_02.tpl
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Gopherus agassizii Fact Sheet
Threatened Status
The Desert Tortoise,Gopherus agassizii, was listed as a threatened species 
April 2, 1990 by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Populations have declined 
recently in many areas due to two main human attributable reasons: the 
direct loss of individuals and habitat degradation / fragmentation. 
Individual tortoises are lost due to poaching, collection for pets, military 
activities, vehicular impact, livestock trampling, disease and raven 
encroachment. Habitat degradation and fragmentation occur mainly through the 
spread of urban sprawl and livestock grazing practices. In addition to a 
recent encroachment by ravens due to the presence of garbage dumps, desert 
tortoises also face the threat of a deadly upper respiratory disease in the 
Western Mojave area.

http://geochange.er.usgs.gov/sw/impacts/biology/tortoise1/

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


Infect Immun. 1994 October; 62(10): 4580–4586.  PMCID: PMC303146

Copyright notice
Mycoplasma agassizii causes upper respiratory tract disease in the desert 
tortoise.
M B Brown, I M Schumacher, P A Klein, K Harris, T Correll, and E R Jacobson
Department of Infectious Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine, 
University of Florida, Gainesville 32610.
T
Abstract

The desert tortoise is listed by the United States government as a 
threatened species in part of its range. A major contributing factor in the 
decline of this animal has been the presence of an upper respiratory tract 
disease (URTD) which is characterized by a chronic disease which eventually 
leads to severe occlusion of the nares with viscous exudate and destruction 
of the respiratory epithelium. Electron microscopy of infected tissues 
demonstrated the presence of a mycoplasma-like organism attached to the 
respiratory surfaces. The mycoplasma was isolated and designated as a new 
species, with the proposed name Mycoplasma agassizii

Full text of this study is available at:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=303146

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

PG&E settles final lawsuits over chromium 6 poisoning
The Associated Press
04/03/2008


Pacific Gas & Electric Co. will pay $20million to settle the last in a 
series of lawsuits that claimed it was responsible for poisoning water in 
the Mojave Desert town of Hinkley, as depicted in the movie "Erin 
Brockovich."

The agreement finalized last week in Los Angeles involved claims that 104 
people were exposed to water that contained chromium 6, a possible 
carcinogen.

The settlement was the latest involving a series of suits that said PG&E 
contamination sickened hundreds of people in Kings, Riverside and San 
Bernardino counties from the 1950s through the mid-1980s.

The 2000 movie "Erin Brockovich" was based on a 1996 case that ended with a 
$333million settlement on behalf of more than 600 Hinkley residents.

Two years ago, PG&E agreed to pay $295million to settle other lawsuits 
involving about 1,100 people.

The final lawsuit was filed about seven years ago.

"It wasn't just the people who lived by the (PG&E) plant who were affected 
but everyone living in Hinkley," said Stephen Wainer, an attorney for the 
defendants.

PG&E spokesman Jon Tremayne said the settlement ends the final lawsuits 
against the company over chromium 6 pollution in the region.

Tremayne said the chemical was dumped into unlined ponds in the 1950s before 
anyone knew of the potential danger.

"Clearly, what happened in Hinkley should not have happened, and we're sorry 
that it did," Tremayne said

Thursday. "It's not the way we do business, and it wouldn't happen in our 
company today."