CLEARFIELD – Helen Turner, resident of Graham Township, expressed concern about sludge’s affects on local recreation at Wednesday’s regular meeting of the Clearfield County Recreation and Tourism Authority.
Turner said she learned about the problems with sludge, when she received a notice of plans for it to be brought into the area of her residence.
“I didn’t like it,” she said. She said that she read about its impact, which for her only made the news worse.
Turner said that Graham Township officials appealed to those from SYNAGRO, Technologies, Inc. She said SYNAGRO decided not to bring in the sludge.
“It doesn’t mean it’ll work next time,” Turner said. She said that she has chosen to approach those “higher up” as a result.
She called the board’s attention to risks related to sludge’s application to land.
According to her presented documents, Dr. David L. Lewis, a research microbiologist and a 30-year veteran of the Emergency Protection Agency Office of Research and Development, pointed out weaknesses in the Sewage Sludge Use and Disposal (503) Rule. Lewis did so in expert testimony in a January 2002 court proceeding after a 26-year-old New Hampshire boy became ill and died after biosolids were spread on a neighboring farmland by SYNAGRO.
The 503 rule sets national standards for pathogens and heavy metals in sewage sludge. It also defines standards or management practices for the safe handling and use of sewage sludge.
Lewis, however, testified that no pathogens risk assessment was performed for the rule. He said the rule failed an extensive peer review by the EPA’s Office of Research and Development. He said that the EPA’s scientists found the rule “scientifically indefensible” in regard to safeguarding public health and the environment from heavy metals, organic chemicals and pathogens in land applied sewage sludge.
Lewis said that the EPA Inspector General found the EPA’s oversight of land application of sewage sludge under the 503 rule to be ineffective. He said that even the rule assumed a significant risk of infection for up to one year from the pathogens in land-applied sewage sludge, according to Turner’s presented documents.
Turner reminded the board that an Osceola area child died as a result of riding though sludge. She said another who lived near a SYNAGRO site died in California.
Turner also said that sludge has been applied in Hawk Run in the past. She said that around sludge sites, residents report “unbearable smells and fumes.”
“The smell pretty much sticks around all summer. Residents don’t even want to go outside,” she said. She said the sludge also attracts flies and rodents.
In addition, she said that wildlife is not permitted to graze on lands, where sludge has been applied. She said that she believed it would be difficult to prevent such grazing and questioned whether it was indeed possible.
“I do believe it will affect recreation and hunting. I don’t think you want to shoot a deer, turkey or any wildlife for that matter (if it’s been exposed to sludge),” Turner said.
Chairman Wilson Fisher explained that the board typically does not take a public position on matters but appreciated the information.
