Corruption, Politics, Big Business and Environmental Injustice
POLITICAL CORRUPTION IS A NATIONWIDE ISSUE AFFECTING ALL OF US. ALABAMA RANKS #5 AS THE MOST CORRUPT STATE. *DOJ 2007 stats Something is very wrong in the Land of Cotton PERTINENT ENVIRONMENTAL AND CORRUPTION ISSUES IN OTHER STATES ARE ALSO DISCUSSED
NO OTHER COMMUNITY, RICH OR POOR, URBAN OR SUBURBAN,BLACK, BROWN,RED, YELLOW OR WHITE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO BECOME AN "ENVIRONMENTAL SACRIFICE ZONE." Dr. Robert Bullard Environmental Justice Movement Founder
On April 20, 2010, the infamous BP oil rig exploded. Americans and the rest of the world alike were in shock and feared how much oil would be released and how much damage it would do. After three months, the spillage of the oil was stopped and restoration has slowly begun. But what if there was a spill of something invisible and the company responsible wanted to keep it a secret. In the book Currents of Deceit, Professor Ronald Perkins writes about such a situation.
Currents of Deceit begins with Scott Simmons, a marine biologist with the Florida Fisheries Commission, and his girlfriend Linda Stevens, a graduate student in biochemistry. Perkins also wrote himself into the book as Dr. Alexander, Linda’s old professor, a character based on his own experiences and interests. In the book, Simmons and Stevens find unusually high levels of PCBs and mercury in fish from the local market They are immediately intrigued and worried by their discovery.
Would a company purposefully and knowingly keep a dangerous environmental and public health threat secret in the name of profit? It's a rhetorical question of course because it happens all the time with pernicious consequences. What happens when the governmental regulatory agency, the EPA, participates in this kind of subterfuge by relying on powerful lobbying groups and industry insiders to be the 'scientific' sources for regulatory mandates?
We've seen this happen with coal ash and bio-solids (sewer sludge). The federal regulations for both of these were based on the recommendations of powerful lobbyists for special interests who's only consideration was the bottom line--the proverbial 'profit over people and sensibility' worn-out model they have been using now for decades.
Now big business has turned its sights on doing away with the only federal regulatory agency that stands between us and a repeat of the flaming rivers of the late 1960s.
The EPA is currently under unprecedented enemy fire from the republicans who are calling for de-funding the agency at minimum, and doing away with it all together at most, describing them as a "loony left-wing job killing organization that's hell bent on an environmentalist whacko vision."
There are problems with the EPA we'll agree, big ones, but to consistently fight against the only agency that we have in place to enforce regulations on corporate America is wrongheaded and dangerous. On the other side of the coin, for the EPA to consistently cave-in to special interests and allow the rules to be written by industry is equally disconcerting.
It's a catch-22 situation that illustrates the pressing need for watchdog journalists, environmental groups and citizen advocates to keep a keen eye on the system and its players. Activism is not a dirty word--apathy and indifference might be.
Winston Churchill warned of the age of indifference (paraphrasing):
'You can only have so many decades and years that are the "last chance" to avoid unalterably horrific effects. We have already passed these points. The age of consequences has begun.'
We would be wise to remember that even though Mr. Perkins book is a 'fictional work' in the literal sense, malefic corporate "Currents of Deceit" are always swirling around our communities and it's incumbent upon us to pay attention. *Recommended reading: Paving Paradise: Florida's Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of "No Net Loss" "The Ripple Effect": The Fate of Fresh Water in the Twenty-first Century
"I think I am seeing the monkey business going on, yes?""
Hope Coal Co. was recently fined $50,000 (further reduced by $16,500) for 174 environmental violations by the Alabama Department of Environmental (mis) Management (ADEM.) That’s roughly $190.00 per violation and the company paid less in corporate fines than an individual would pay for a speeding ticket. The price of doing business in Alabama comes cheap when you screw up.And screwing up is definitely encouraged.
The bastion of (almost) exclusively white brotherly love, the City of Vestavia Hills, is caught showing their religious intolerance and unabashed snobbishness when the faith-based Jimmie Hale Missions tried to become the latest new tenant in the city. Their full of the love of Christ attitude is quite pious as long as "undesirables" stay on their side of town and don’t mingle with the privileged ones in the occupied territory of VH. (MP3 file podcast local talker Matt Murphy on WAPI. More podcasts on their webpage)
One Shelby County Preacher makes his case for what Alabama really needs: God, not real ethics reforms. Never mind that we’re 49th in corruption and the state house is brimming over with “good, upright Christian men,” we just need to all get closer to God and the rest will take care of itself. We wonder if this Vincent preacher counseled Vincent Mayor Ray McAllister against any private meetings with the town citizens who don’t want their town swallowed up by the notorious Vecellio Group's White Rock Quarries, their mining subsidiary from Florida. The Mayor and Council had meetings a plenty in another county out of sight of their citizens with quarry reps Rob Fowler and Stephen Bradley. Something we've always wondered about is why a Florida rock mining outfit, instead of Martin Marietta or Vulcan, who operate all the other eight quarries in Shelby County?Controversial location for a company well-versed in controversy perhaps? Makes sense to us--does it to you?
Governor Mule Bentley (AKA "Dunkey" a cross between a dunce and donkey) shows his true colors to the republican faithful and appoints his "goobernatorial" democratic challenger to head the Alabama Economic Rural Development office, and frankly, we’re shocked they’re shocked. A YouTube clip from Sean Hannity’s FOX show has guest Dick Morris (former Clinton man turned republican shill) pinning the tail on the "Dunkey" on what the good "Badtist" Dr. Dr. really is. Caveat Emptor. We sure do hope Sparks doesn't do for any other rural Alabama community what he did to North Alabama as Ag Commissioner.That would be a real stinker of a move.
Speaking of Bentley, he’s carrying on Riley era economic deals and has announced the entry of a biofuels plant into the Greene County area, the same county that former Governor Riley sent over one hundred state troopers into and immediately put scores of residents out of work and out of luck when he closed down the gambling joint. The biofuels plant, *Coskata, is brainchild of billionaire financier Vinod Khosla, who partnered up with bailout baby GM in 2008. The most obvious question to us is this: Why would an enterprising successful entrepreneur partner with a CEO who oversaw the largest corporation in the world to within a hairs width of bankruptcy? GM invested an “undisclosed amount of money” into Coskata in 2008 and then received millions in TARP money the following year. Looks like we paid twice, all of us. Cellulosic Ethanol plants require large swaths of land and maybe an over hyped bio-engineered crop or two, which Monsanto is poised to be an integral part of. The word "sustainable" is being thrown about and AlterNet asks if corporations have hijacked "sustainable." The answer is yes, and they are redefining the word to their advantage, hoping the rest of us don't notice. We do. A sure bet on this is that certain Alabama business men, select politicians and lobbyists will get rich off of this deal whether it pans out or not. The USDA has cleared a $250 million dollar loan for the project that's been in the works for two years. More federal handouts will go to "farmers" who agree to grow crops for biomass use. We're really concerned that the normally environmentally conscientious dems are on board with this. Expect construction to be drawn out through Bentley's term to help him save face on his campaign promises of jobs, jobs, jobs.
Another useless state agency charged with environmental protection steps in it and makes a terrible decision and rewards corporate bad behavior.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) (an oxymoronic term) started out tough after an investigator witnessed illegal sewage dumping that led to two employees going to jail for the act.
Investigators from the DEP, with help from the Department of Transportation, followed a Shelley's truck Sept. 27 from the Daytona Water Treatment Facility on LPGA Boulevard to Cowart Ranch property off County Road 305 in Flagler County, according to DEP reports. They witnessed Douglas "Bear" Shelley and Scott Matthew Roberts "dumping raw residual waste on spread fields without the required treatment." That dump was approximately 25 yards (2,000 pounds), and 60 head of cattle were about 150 feet from where the human waste was dumped "leaving easy access for the cattle to come in direct contact with the waste," reports state.
DEP rightfully followed that action with refusing to renew the permit of Shelley's Environmental Systems (SES), only to quickly reverse themselves after pressure from corporate legal eagles and the payment of a "settlement," that puts the company right back in toxic business.
This wasn't the first time SES got into trouble for its questionable way of doing business, but that didn't figure into the permit reinstatement, as usual.
Shelley's Environmental Systems in Zellwood must pay the DEP $74,500 in penalties as part of a settlement agreement submitted to a judge on Tuesday which gives the company a permit for another four years but also calls for Shelley's to sell 63 acres in Zellwood to VitAg Florida "for the purpose of construction of a biosolids treatment plant." This comes from the settlement agreement.
Some property owners and others are skeptical.
"I was hoping something more would come of this," said Dale Clegg, who is in the area daily taking care of his parents' house. "It still smells the same out here. You're at the mercy of the state to take care of you, but they aren't keeping an eye on things like they should."
"My whole problem is with the DEP," Taylor said. "You call them and tell them they aren't in compliance, and they call Shelley's and tell them they'll be out in 10 days. That gives them plenty of time to clean things up."
Same old stuff, insert any company in any community and this story is being written over and over again all across America. Our state "environmental protection" agencies continue to aide and abet this nasty business of sewer sludge (aka biosolids) and refuse to act in the public's best interests.
We have covered the issue of the biosolid myth and Alabama's nasty practices with human and industrial waste (aka sewer sludge) twice before and thanks to Merrill Brothersstealthily moving into Harpersville, Alabama (Shelby County) in January of this year under the guise of a starting up a "hunting lodge" we are covering it again.
They have entered the area under dishonest and false pretenses which should always raise suspicion no matter what issue is at hand--deception equals something to hide.
Note the Christian symbol on the upper right hand side of the sign. Does this imply that Jesus approves?
This facility is located at 201 Tanyard Road, off of Highway 76 (Klein Rd.) in Harpersville on what was formerly the farmland of Dixon Kidd. According to sources in the area, allegedly there was a confrontation of sorts over the summer from concerned parties inquiring about the transportation of raw sewage into the Harpersville area that ended with a firearm drawn and a demand to "get off my land."
Wouldn't it have been easier to just answer the questions about what is going on at the "hunting lodge" rather than to resort to such aggressive measures when being questioned about their activities? Maybe we're being naive, but if you are doing business of a controversial nature, as sewer sludge is, wouldn't a company try to at least exhibit some semblance of transparency and cooperation towards a community they have set themselves up in?
Their mission statement seems to be in conflict with the above attitude and we'd like to ask them if all the Christian banner waving is somehow supposed to give off the appearance of they cannot possibly be doing anything wrong because they're such good Christians. That's the same thing the Catholic church wanted us all to believe and look how that turned out.
There was a previous Region 4 EPA investigation of Merrill Brothers and the City of Childersburg, whom they had contracted with to receive their municipal sewer waste that ended with the EPA "finding no alarming issues."
That is the same stance the EPA has held throughout their implementation of sewer sludge as "fertilizer."
They have claimed all along this is a safe process and cases that have ended in just the opposite have been actively campaigned against by the EPA & WEF to be made to effectively "disappear" in the news.
(See R sidebar "From Sewer to Farm to Your Fork." WEF presents itself as the "water people" with visions of clean water, cascading waterfalls, blue skies and beautiful plants, but who they really are is a front group for the sludge industry. There's a reason ethically challenged PR firms and their advertising connections get paid the big bucks.)
Our previous postings cover the story of Synagro (the titan of sewer sludge) and North Alabama. South Alabama has also had it's share of controversy on this subject and it is the headquarters of Merrill Brothers Alabama operations. In the Synagro cases, the EPA was dead wrong on the safety of this practice that was ushered into the area by Synagro PR man Stephen Bradley (yep, there he is representing toxic terror once again) and Commissioner of Agriculture Ron Sparks. Merrill Brothers would have had to gotten permission to enter the state in a similar fashion.
Was Sparks dumb enough to allow this to happen a second time after what happened with Synagro?
We've just elected a new Commissioner of Agriculture, John McMillan, and it's time to start asking questions of him and if he is going to allow this dirty business to continue.
Sewer sludge is under the oversight of the EPA under 503:
Part 503.9(t) Pollutant is an organic substance, an inorganic substance, a combination of organic and inorganic substances, or a pathogenic organism that, after discharge and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation, or assimilation into an organism either directly from the environment or indirectly by ingestion through the food chain, could, on the basis of information available to the Administrator of EPA, cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutations, physiological malfunctions (including malfunction in reproduction), or physical deformations in either organisms (humans) or offspring (children) of the organisms.
But it's "safe" because it has been "treated" right? The EPA tells us "it's safe" so we should just blindly accept that as fact? Can you name one instance where the government has ever gotten it right on issues of this nature in the past?
Full timeline of sewer sludge issue from Sludge News.
Two important and somewhat recent events;
October 2003, 73 farm, labor, and environmental organizations opposed to the land application of sewage sludge signed a petition to EPA demanding that the practice be stopped. On Christmas Eve, December 24, 2003, they received an answer from EPA: there will be no changes.
In 2008, a hearing before the Congressional EPW Committee, that is chaired by Senator Barbara Boxer, was scheduled on sewer sludge that was abruptly canceled due to ongoing litigation in Georgia;
WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats abruptly canceled a hearing Thursday on using sewage sludge as farm fertilizer after learning that two witnesses from Georgia had cited their upcoming testimony at the hearing in trying to win a settlement in a lawsuit.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee had been scheduled to hear testimony from an Augusta-area farmer and a former federal scientist who have fought the Environmental Protection Agency and the University of Georgia over the safety of using sludge on farm fields.
The farmer, Andy McElmurray, and the scientist, David Lewis, are suing the University of Georgia Research Foundation and others, alleging that UGA research was part of a scheme by the EPA to justify a federal policy allowing the continued use of sludge as fertilizer.
A spokeswoman for the committee said the hearing was canceled out of concern the private litigation would distract from the main issue of sludge safety. She said Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., plans to reschedule the session.
It has never been rescheduled. Why is that Senator Boxer?
Alabama regulations are non-existent and the sludge industry is taking full advantage of this egregious lapse by the State of Alabama.
The following document spells out all 50 states regulations. Alabama appears on pages 4-7:
In the last election cycle for local amendments in Colbert County, Alabama this appeared on the ballot:
Relating to Colbert County, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to provide that treated human sewage biosolids may not be applied to land as a fertilizer or soil amendment, except for sewage biosolids produced by a publicly owned utility in Colbert County.(Proposed by Act 2009-390)
Out of 10,937 votes cast, 75.8% voted in favor of this amendment to end this process of applying sewer sludge to any lands in Colbert County by any outside company, but it did not go far enough and left open the possibility of Colbert County getting in on the sludge act itself.
In Lawrence County, Alabama they took it a step further with an amendment that read as follows:
Relating to Lawrence County, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to provide that treated human sewage biosolids may not be applied to land as a fertilizer or soil amendment. (Proposed by Act 2009-370)
Out of 8,422 votes cast, this one passed with 77.5% in favor of ending any future sludge applications.
Lawrence probably voted on a harder line because of what happened in the eastern section of the county that residents referred to as "Shit Road." Moulton Mayor Alexander was duped by ADEM & the EPA and he made no bones about his displeasure in 2009 news articles:
Much of the sludge from DU and Decatur industries ends up at Morris Farms, a Hillsboro landfill. Recent ADEM tests concluded the landfill’s leachate — liquid runoff from the waste — has PFOA levels of 91.6 ppb, more than 200 times the EPA drinking water advisory. The PFOS levels are about 275 times the drinking water advisory .
For one day, Alexander, the Moulton mayor, banned Morris Farms from dumping its leachate into the Moulton wastewater treatment plant. ADEM officials sat him down, however, and he reversed his position.
“ADEM said we were already contaminated, and it was too late to do anything about it,” Alexander said Friday. “Nobody notified us of the danger until it was too late. We were already contaminated.”
The effluent from Moulton’s wastewater treatment plant, according to recent ADEM tests, includes 1.7 parts per billion of PFOA and 0.7 ppb of PFOS. That’s about four times the EPA advisory on the chemicals.
Sludge at the bottom of the pond into which the effluent runs — the stuff children wade through on Crow Branch — weighs in at 83 parts per billion, more than 200 times the drinking water limit.
The levels of PFOS, the more dangerous chemical, in the sludge is a remarkable 941 parts per billion, almost 5,000 times the drinking water advisory.
Alexander said Friday ADEM had not shown him these numbers.
He said he is very worried about residents having health problems as a result of contact with Crow Branch, but he has not warned them about the risk.
“EPA and ADEM dropped the ball,” he said, “and as a result we are contaminated.”
But he continued accepting leachate from Morris Farms, did not warn residents about the potential health risk probably because of political reasons, and said the "best remedy would be to sue those responsible" when he should have stopped all transports completely. We understand that suing is the only remedy left after the fact, and hopefully it will serve as a future deterrent, but you cannot unring a bell--the damage has been done and it will continue to happen if the sludge industry wins the PR war on this subject.
The claims of safety and a cheap, natural "organic" fertilizer leave out a few key facts:
Certain bacteria are thermoresistant. Outbreaks of the common E-coli strain 0157, which is prevalent in sewer sludge, is the most common cause of food borne illnesses.
Other pathogenic agents from "treated" sewer sludge can lie dormant in soils for years and will not disappear in the 30-60 day time frame that the EPA "magic" claims.
Heavy metals and organic compounds are found in elevated numbers in sewer sludge even after "treatment."
It is common for industries to flush their wastes into municipal sewer systems and unless the EPA is willing to position a sewer sentry at every discharge point into municipal sewers, it is impossible to know what is going into the systems.
EPA testing is limited and does not cover all of the ingredients of "sewer sludge soup" and acceptable levels of human exposure have been consistently lowered over the years.
Now, we ask you if this is the kind of product you would like to have your food grown in?
The "friendly and beneficial" fertilizer before "dewatering."
We covered this sewer sludge issue in a previous posting on Synagro Technolgies and its push into Northern Alabama to convince the state and local governments that "biosolids" (sewer sludge and toxic industrial wastes) were "safe" to spread all over North Alabama farmland and in other public areas according to their PR spokesman Stephen Bradley, because they were "strictly regulated by the EPA";
Steve Bradley, a spokesman for Synagro in Alabama, did not address the legislation specifically, but said the company is strictly regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency and also falls under the oversight of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. Synagro also has developed management guidelines for its product with assistance from the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries. (click title for previous post)
This had been going on in Alabama since 1987 with the EPA & ADEM's blessings, and the state required NO Permits only a Land Base Book with the record of applications. The state of Alabama had "no objections to the project";
The state of Alabama has also been notified of biosolids coming to Alabama from out of state. In our conversations with ADEMs Jim Grassiano (Section Chief of Permits and Compliance, Municipal Branch Water Division) the state has no objections to this project.
Written confirmation of our intent to move forward has been sent to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM). The state of Alabama will require NO PERMITS; however they will be sent a Land Base Book containing all application sites and specifics to those sites. They will also be sent a Treatment Facility Book containing specifics to the lime stabilization of non PRSP biosolids. Synagro will provide this project information to ADEM.
ADEM has no Home Rule governing the use of biosolids they defer to EPA Region IV. However, Synagro has worked closely with ADEM since the project first began in Alabama in 1987. Synagro has presented this project verbally to Mike Horn at EPA Region IV.
Synagro probably has some foresight in choosing Alabama and "working closely" with ADEM based on its documented weakness and ineptitude which they had to be aware of and exploited to their advantage;
In 1984 the US EPAstrippedADEMof its authority to manage the disposal of hazardous wastes in Alabama on the grounds the agency personnel lack adequate training and competency in such manners.
On Dec. 17, 1985, a federal Judge in Montgomery ruled that ADEMin issuing environmental permits violated the due process provision of the US Constitution.
A following evaluation by a Washington based environmental advocacy group found Alabama's environmental management programs among the worst in the nation, ahead of those in only two other states.
(Times-Daily Newspaper, Weds. Feb 25, 1987 Page 6A)
ADEM gained control over all hazardous waste handling permitting from the US EPA in December 1987. The timing was convenient for Synagro to come in and begin their toxic dumping on Alabama. Emelle, the subject of another post (also involving the illustrious Mr. Bradley) was another beneficiary from this change in regulatory powers.
Alabama lost. Our citizens lost. So did our environment. And we are still losing on this issue because it is still going on and being kept quiet.
Adding insult to injury in 1989, despite ADEM protesting and claiming "improvement" in managing Alabama's environmental, the US EPA cited Alabama as "the fourth worst in water pollution, ninth in releasing toxic chemicals into the air, seventh disposing of toxic waste at facility sites and the seventh largest state receiving toxic chemicals from out-of-state."
(Tuscaloosa News June 22, 1989 Page 6A)
In other words, we have long been an environmental toxic soup aided by our state regulatory agencies, EPA Region IV and our greedy and corrupt politicians who have made deals with every big business who wanted a piece of Alabama.
National Association of Clean Water Agencies(NACWA) is the powerful political, PR and lobby arm of the publicly owned wastewater management agencies, sewage treatment and sewage sludge plants in the United States
Although its name evokes images of cascading mountain streams, the Water Environment Federation (WEF) is actually the sewage sludge industry's main trade, lobby and public relations organization, with over 41,000 members and a multi-million-dollar budget that supports a 100-member staff.
The WEF has been aggressively involved in promoting the so-called "beneficial use" of sewage sludge for fertilizer. To avoid the negative connotations associated with the word "sludge," WEF invented the euphemism "biosolids."
In 1977, Federation director Robert Canham criticized the EPA's enthusiasm for land application of sludge, which he feared could introduce viruses into the food chain. "The results can be disastrous," he warned.
By the 1990s, however, Federation members were running out of other places to put the stuff. The Federation became an eager supporter of land farming, and even organized a contest among its members to coin a nicer-sounding name for sludge.
To educate the public at large about the benefits of sludge, the EPA turned to the WEF.
If this is not a grand illusion perpetrated on a massive scale by all involved we are hard pressed to find another suitable definition of it. There is a "brainchild" behind all of this beyond Mr. Bradley; the Washington DC PR firm of Powell Tate who specialize in controversial health, safety and high-tech issues. PT was founded by Jody Powell, ex press secretary of Jimmy Carter and Sheila Tate who was Nancy Reagan's adviser.
Powell Tate are the ones behind the campaign of the "National Biosolids Public Acceptance Campaign" and together with the Food Processor's Association are "strongly opposed" to labeling food as grown in sludge--the public doesn't need to know. They are after the Certified Organic Industry and seek to "greenwash" sludge with the endorsement of the COI.
In 1992 Heinz was firmly against the use of any sludge grown foods used in their products, but in 1995 they "reconsidered their opposition" and many other companies followed their lead. Once WEF got the EPA on their side it was open season on the public food supply and sewer sludge became the new "it" fertilizer thanks in large part to the efforts of PT.
"The public needs to know it's not safe to grow food on that toxic sludge no matter what it's called," said Hugh Kaufman of the EPA.
Synagro is owned by the infamous Carlyle Group, but that is another story for another day.
In Alabama, Mr. Bradley became the voice of Synagro's toxic sludge campaign and Synagro succeeded in securing its place on Alabama farmlands that grew cotton, corn, hay and soybeans among other crops. Some of the areas where this sludge was applied are as follows;
Foley, Colbert County, Lawrence County, Decatur, Limestone County, Gulf Shores, Albertville, Jasper, Guntersville, Madison County, Muscle Shoals, Franklin County and Stevenson among others.
In 2009, Northern Alabama had finally had enough and passed legislation to get Synagro out of their area. Civil lawsuits have followed and motions have been filed by the defendants to move the cases to Morgan County where there may be a more lenient legal environment for them;
State Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, represents the Franklin County Commission as a co-plaintiff in one of the lawsuits. The senator, who also sponsored bills that would ban the fertilizer, said Friday he is determined to keep human waste off farmland in his district.
The lawsuits deal with sludge containing chemicals known as PFOA and PFOS. The substances originated in Decatur industries that used them to make non-stick coatings used in products like Teflon.
A panel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concluded the chemicals, even at extremely low levels, are likely carcinogens.
Local industries that use or have used the chemicals that ended up in Decatur Utilities sludge include 3M Co., Daikin America Inc. and Toray Fluorofibers. All three are defendants in the county lawsuits, and are plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case filed June 28, 2009.
Synagro South, LLC, Biological Processors of Alabama and Dyneon LLC are also defendants in the county lawsuits.
From 1996 until November, DU contracted with Synagro to spread the biosolids on area farms as fertilizer. The practice ended in November because the EPA discovered alarming accumulations of the chemicals it calls “unregulated contaminants” in the soil of farms that received the biosolids.
According to documents it filed in court,Synagro completed 598 land applications of DU’s toxic mix on area farms between 1996 and 2007.
It did not list its applications in 2008.
But this all supposed to be "safe" and everybody follows "strict regulations" from the federal government and the state regulatory agencies, the same agencies that are trying to unload this toxic sludge on all of us, not just Alabama. San Francisco, California is a recent recipient of the sludge in a story from August 2010. San Francisco's Gavin Newsome has dirty hands with this sludge issue, even though he is supposed to a "Green Mayor."
And another case in Bakersfield, California from June 2010.
Montgomery, Alabama "The Wave" which is the Alabama Water Environment Association Newsletter, this one from Winter 2008. They are spreading it on hay fields which is a primary food source for cattle and horses.
They are doing it even after this happened as reported in the Athens-News Courier March 29, 2008, by reporter Karen Middleton:
Synagro Technologies has a contract to dispose of human wastes from New York. The company, which operates with approval from the Environmental Protection Agency, treats sludge from wastewater plants in New York and ships it to Alabama by rail car. The sludge is treated at a plant in Leighton, and then offered at no charge to farmers in Limestone County to fertilize their fields.
About 40 farmers signed up to receive the sludge.
In Georgia, a farmer’s cattle died and the milk from another farmer’s cattle was contaminated by fields treated with sludge from the waste-treatment plant near Augusta. Last week, a federal judge ordered the Agriculture Department to compensate the farmer whose land was poisoned by the sludge. His cows had died by the hundreds.
In October, the county had reached an agreement with the company after seeking an injunction against Synagro. Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks said Synagro officials had assured him they would no longer distribute the fertilizer on pastureland. Where it is spread, it would have to be worked into the dirt instead of being placed on top of the soil. *(Editor's note--shame on you Mr.Sparks!)
Sounds like one great big load of crap to us, and a highly toxic one at that. (See the "Document Box" R. sidebar for "PR Industry Unspun")
Additional stories:
3 part series: Moulton May Sue Over Dumping Clinton WH "walking on very clean poo."
