Sludge Watch ==> Center for Biological Diversity - Hinkley Residents Win Sludge Challenge

[Maureen Reilly]

For Immediate Release, April 29, 2008

Contacts:  Norm Diaz, helphinkley.org, (760) 963-3585
Kassie Siegel, Center for Biological Diversity, (760) 366-2232 x 302
Ingrid Brostrom, Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, (661) 720-9140 x 
302

Hinkley Residents Win Challenge to Open-Air Sludge Compost Facility;
Community Activists Convince Judge to Order
Further Environmental Review for Proposed Project

HINKLEY, Calif.— A group of residents in Hinkley, the rural California town 
Erin Brockovich made famous in a landmark case against a utility for 
contaminating the local water supply, has won another environmental case, 
this time against the county, for its approval of a proposed open-air sewage 
sludge compost facility.

HelpHinkley.org and the Center for Biological Diversity argued that the 
proposed Hawes Composting Facility Project, to be located near the former 
Hawes Airport, about 8 miles west and upwind of Hinkley, posed potential 
environmental risks because it would ferment human sewage sludge and other 
waste products in the open air. The plaintiffs charged that San Bernardino 
County failed to adequately consider mitigation measures — in particular, 
enclosing the proposed facility — that would reduce potential environmental 
impacts before it approved the Environmental Impact Report by Nursery 
Products LLC, the company to build the facility.

San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge John Vander Feer agreed, ruling 
that the county must conduct further environmental review and consider the 
feasibility of enclosing the proposed facility.

“It is extremely gratifying to know that our concerns were validated and the 
judge sided with us,” says Norm Diaz of HelpHinkley.org. “We understand the 
need to compost and deal with waste responsibly. But our communities are not 
the producers of the majority of sewage sludge in Southern California that 
would go to this proposed facility. If we are forced to deal with other 
areas’ waste, we should be protected from any possible effects with the use 
of state-of-the-art technologies.”

Kassie Siegel, climate, air and energy program director at the Center for 
Biological Diversity, adds: “Our victory in this case gives the county a 
second chance to protect the environment and the health and welfare of 
Hinkley residents by requiring this facility to use today's technology, 
rather than last century’s.”

HelpHinkley.org and the Center for Biological Diversity were represented by 
the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment (CRPE) and the Golden Gate 
University Environmental Law and Justice Clinic. Participating attorneys 
included Brent Plater, staff attorney with the clinic, who supervised Golden 
Gate University law students working on the case, and Caroline Farrell and 
Ingrid Brostrom with CRPE.

“We are encouraged that the judge saw matters our way,” said CRPE’s 
Brostrom. “We hope that the county takes this opportunity to provide Hinkley 
residents with the same level of protection that is already required in 
other areas.”

“No one would help or listen until the legal teams at the Golden Gate 
University Environmental Law and Justice Clinic and the Center on Race, 
Poverty, and the Environment came to the aid of our community,” says Diaz of 
HelpHinkley.org. “With their help we have forced San Bernardino County to go 
back and look at alternatives that will protect the local population.”

The fate of the facility is unclear, attorney Plater notes. “The judge sent 
the county back to start its environmental review over again. The county 
could appeal, pull the plug on the project, or try and re-do its analysis 
over again and address the concerns raised by the judge. In the meantime, 
regulatory decisions are being made that might make this type of facility a 
thing of the past.”

Whatever the outcome, one environmental advocate who is especially proud of 
HelpHinkley.org's efforts is Erin Brockovich, whose fight to hold Pacific 
Gas & Electric Co. accountable for contaminating Hinkley's drinking water 
resulted in the largest toxic tort injury settlement in U.S. history and was 
depicted in the film Erin Brockovich. Now president of her own consulting 
company, Brockovich assisted Hinkley residents in organizing against the 
proposed Hawes Composting Facility Project.

“I think that Norman [Diaz] has done an excellent job, as well as the 
community,” Brockovich says. “I admire their tenacity, their community 
involvement, and standing up for what they believe in.”

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