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January 21, 2004
EPA rules on sludge processCALIFORNIA FIRM BANNED FROM APPLYING NEAR OPEN WELLS
By MARK WAITE Bruce Holmgren, staff engineer at the Bureau of Water Pollution Control, in a Dec. 22 letter to Ken Lake, owner of Solid Solutions LLC of El Segundo, Calif., said the restrictions were due to concerns over application of the sludge at the Funeral Mountain Ranch in Amargosa Valley. The sludge can't be applied within 50 feet of a sealed well, per Nevada Administrative Code, Holmgren said. The application is banned within 200 feet of an unsealed well. "The division determined that waters of the state would be better protected by incorporating these conditions without further delay as a minor modification," Holmgren wrote. During a meeting of the Amargosa Valley Town Advisory Board Sept. 25, local resident Shelia Rau said there were numerous uncapped wells on the Funeral Mountain Ranch. Doug Bradley, a co-owner of the Funeral Mountain Ranch, told members of the Southern Nye County Conservation District last week the restrictions wouldn't have much impact on the application of bio-solids on the alfalfa fields. "I don't think we have a lot of problem with bio-solids going down wells sealed or unsealed," he said. "If you backed a truck up to a well and dumped it in the well, then you might have a problem." Amargosa Valley resident Jerry Nelson, however, was on hand to contest Bradley's comments. He said many wells on the property weren't properly capped, calling them "a fast path to the water table." Bradley described the sludge application to conservation district members as more of an experiment, adding, "the jury is still out" on how the material works as fertilizer and if it improves the sandy soil conditions. He expects it will require applying less water than normal fertilizers and even choke out weeds, judging from reports of other sludge applicators. The Funeral Mountain Ranch is applying 12 ounces of the dry solution per square foot, Bradley said. The Nevada Department of Environmental Protection is considering a request by the ranch to increase the amount of sludge applied to the fields from 100 cubic yards per day to 300 cubic yards, or eight truckloads. Holmgren told attendees at a public hearing in Amargosa Valley a decision would be made on that request soon. Bradley said ranch owners have applied for an extension to apply more bio-solids in the winter. "We reduced the density of application to six ounces per square foot instead of 12," Bradley said. He added, "In winter I've been getting less response about the smell." Bradley said a third party lab hired by the Orange County Sanitation District tests the sludge. A day or two after land application there aren't any detectable fecal colonies, he said. During test results released Nov. 6, A&L Analytical Laboratories Inc. detected 13,200 such colonies per gram in bio-solids just offloaded from the truck, but only 200 per gram one day after application. After 15 days, levels of coliform were down to less than 10. Bradley told conservation district members they selected the Orange County Sanitation District because of its excellent track record monitoring sewage discharge. It's also a newly urbanized area without a lot of old sewer lines and has mostly light industry, without a lot of heavy metals, he said. Nelson asked Bradley if he'd sign a document verifying the sludge would never affect the groundwater or health of Amargosa Valley residents. Bradley responded by saying the public outcry in Amargosa Valley is over the odor issue and the importation of sludge from out of state. The Nye County district attorney's office is researching whether county commissioners can pass an ordinance to levy a high tipping fee on the importation of the sludge, or other ways to restrict its use. Bradley said he'd have no problem obtaining the bio-solids from Nevada or Nye County instead of California. The farm uses about 100 tons per day of wet sludge, which equals about 20 tons dry, he said. Jarrod Edmunds, a resource specialist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, was still curious why certain counties outlawed the application of bio-solids if the material is so safe. Bradley said the public perception is a factor, while in other areas, like the Central Valley of California, there is intensive cultivation of vegetables for human consumption on nearby fields. The Center for Food Safety on Oct. 7 filed a request with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asking for a moratorium on the land application of sewage sludge. The center, which said it represents 72 organizations, wants the EPA to freeze the issuance of new pollutant discharge permits; rewrite existing permits to require a method of sludge disposal other than land application; and initiate rules to change sludge rules outlined in the Clean Water Act to eliminate land application as an acceptable practice for sewage sludge disposal. EPA Assistant Administrator G. Tracy Mehan III, in a 22-page report, replied, "The facts do not support a moratorium on land application of sewage sludge." The EPA said reports of adverse health effects cited in the petition were not proven to have been caused by exposure to land-applied sewage sludge. The Center for Food Safety cited 350 claims of adverse effects from land-applied sewage sludge cited by the Cornell Waste Management Institute; three human deaths in New Hampshire and Pennsylvania; and a court case in which 300 cattle deaths at a farm in Augusta, Ga., were blamed on sewage sludge. Mehan, however, did state, "EPA nevertheless recognizes that it is appropriate to continue exploring issues associated with the land application of sewage sludge." The EPA plans to publish in the Federal Register a plan for research and a targeted sewage sludge survey to reduce scientific uncertainties. |
