Sludge Watch ==> Help Hinkley Calif - Stop the Sludge

[Maureen Reilly]

Letters to the Editor
San Bernardino Sun
02.06.2008

Stop the sludge

For over 18 months, the residents of Hinkley and Barstow have asked for 
safety measures be placed on a San Bernardino County-approved open-air 
sludge dump to be located upwind from our community and families.

Our county supervisors approved this sludge dump, even though many questions 
have been raised about the location, process and history of the applicant.

Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt also approved of the fact that the sludge dump 
would emit Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs) many times exceeding the safety 
amount established by the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District 
(MDAQMD). These VOCs are known to cause developmental problems with children 
and possible reproductive issues for women.

Our schools have spent years trying to eliminate VOCs from classrooms, and 
now the county has allowed a major source to be placed directly upwind from 
two Barstow elementary schools.

We have looked for help from the MDAQMD, but they seem to side with the 
sludge dumpers and against the people who will be affected. Why? As usual, 
it is about money, greed and politics. Companies that deal with sludge make 
millions in profits. Lots of companies are willing to build enclosed 
facilities that are proven to be safer and still make millions in profits.

The Hinkley sludge dump will have a truck arriving every eight minutes, 365 
days a year. The peanut butterlike sludge will be dumped and mixed with 
other waste, then stirred and turned repeatedly. The "finished" mixture will 
be stored for up to two years in mounds 50 feet high on site.

Mitzelfelt and the MDAQMD have agreed that the material will never blow off 
site toward our families and community. The Western Regional Climate Center 
lists our winds as the fifth-highest average in California at 11.1 miles per 
hour. But the MDAQMD says our area never had a wind higher than 28 mph in 
2006. Those of us that live here know differently.

This sludge dump would be illegal north and south of us. Those areas require 
large industrial sludge dumps to capture 80 percent of the VOCs, gases and 
dust to protect their children and future. Why are we not protected equally?

This process can be done safely with enclosures and filters, and we will not 
settle for anything less. We have done a baseline air sample to prove our 
air is clean now. We will work with the MDAQMD to ensure strong rules are 
enacted to the same standards other areas enjoy.

The lawsuit against San Bernardino County starts Feb. 8 in Barstow. Go to 
the helphinkley.org Web site for more information.

D. NORMAN DIAZ
Barstow

http://www.sbsun.com/letters/ci_8179782