A Voice Crying in the Wilderness Against Sludge
Published: August 26, 2009
When it comes to having a voice on whether sewage sludge can be spread in Amherst County, the Board of Supervisors has done just about all it can do. Under state law, however, that is not much.
Synagro Central LLC, one of at least two companies in Virginia that contract with municipal sewage treatment facilities along the East Coast, has informed the county that it intends to spread biosolids on land adjacent to the Virginia Blue Ridge Railway Trail. The 132 acres in the northern part of the county belongs to Wesley Wright.
The property is next to the trail, which begins at Piney River in Nelson County and follows the river for almost two miles to Roses Mill in Amherst County.
The sludge, or biosolids as the industry that hauls the substance prefers to call it, is a mix of treated human waste and industrial sewage.
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Rich in nutrients, the material is applied to hayfields and pasture lands at no cost to the farmer who owns the land. It amounts to free fertilizer for the farmer, whose land becomes a repository for the solid waste that otherwise would have to go to a landfill.
A debate on whether the sludge has the potential to cause health problems has been going unabated for several years. Some studies claim that biosolids cause an array of health problems. Others suggest that the waste is an environmentally friendly fertilizer that poses no health hazards.
So what can the supervisors in Amherst do about the firm’s intent to spread the sludge?
They have sent a letter to the director of the state Department of Environmental Quality asking that it not allow the firm to spread biosolids on farmland near the trail. The letter points out that more than $2 million has been invested in the trail, including $1.4 million in federal grants.
Amherst and Nelson counties have contributed some $40,000 to construction of the trail, which follows the former railway track.
The letter also calls the DEQ’s attention to odors caused by spreading the sludge and potential health risks for those who use the trail. “Any dumping, spreading or discharging of biosolids on lands adjacent to the trail could potentially negatively impact, disrupt or shut down one-half of all significant recreational trails in Amherst County,” it says.
The letter could have suggested the folly of spreading the nutrients near the Piney River. Heavy rains could wash them into the river, which is part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Once those nutrients reach the bay, they help feed the algae bloom, which along with other problems degrades the bay’s water quality.
While localities have no authority to prohibit spreading the sewage sludge, they can enact local ordinances to test the material, which Amherst has done. The county has an agreement in place with a Sweet Briar College professor to monitor spreading biosolids on farmland in the county.
Those who use the Virginia Blue Ridge Railway Trail have objected to past proposals to spread the sludge so close to the trail.
The DEQ should take those who use the trail for recreational purposes into mind before it gives the green light to Synagro.
It’s the least the state could do to give a voice to the county that objects to spreading biosolids, but has little say over whether it can go forward.
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Reader Reactions
packer2dogs, When it rains hard raw sewerage runs into the James River from Lynchburg sewers. There are people in Amherst County that STILL have out houses.
This stuff has been tested and tested over and over again. Some people will never be satisfied. If you can prove you have been damaged by the stuff it will all end. Nobody has. So, it goes on and in the light of that I still say it should be Wesley Wright’s call.
It’s better than ocean dumping and it just might force us to confront the outrageous mess people are making of our planet.
Can you imagine if we were all forced to keep our own waste on our own property? If we were all forced to be responsible for our own mess?
And what’s bad too is that the wildlife (deer, turkey, etc.) also eat off this grass. Farmers are supposed to keep thier cattle off of the land for a certain time after the crap is spread, but there is no way of keeping the wildlife from eating it. Then the hunters kill the deer and eat it. There is no way around it. Either you eat it, or you don’t. Even most vegetables are grown in it. Especially if they come from Mexico and places like that.
It doesn’t matter what crops Mr. Wright grows. Many Many farmers across the world use human waste as fertilizer. We would never know. The guy that farms behind me uses it to fertilize his fields for his cattle. The cattle eat the grass with this crap spread on it and then they are taken to the market and sold and then we eat it. There is no way of knowing anything about what you buy. The best way to make sure your not eating hazardous material is to grow it or farm it yourself.
I wonder how close Mr. Wright’s home is to the farmland. Perhaps he doesn’t have to worry about the smell.
Not enough testing has been done to prove that the sludge is harmless. Some sewage is treated with chlorine, which does NOT kill all the germs.
I think Mr. Wright should have to let the public know what crops he grows, and where these crops are sold. That way, we can avoid buying them.
Absolutely not, Cosmo###. Property rights are not absolute. One can’t build a facility to produce a toxic substance that drains on another’s property or affects that property. If so, that’s capitalism and property rights running amuck.
Why in the world do we allow the spread of sludge when we are not even sure of its impacts on health? How many times do we have to make the same mistake over and over?
These biosolids are very nasty. It smells terrible. I am a conservative liberatarian so I say it should be the land owners decision. I have a farmer who spreads it on his land just behind my house. Once spreaded, the smell lasts for a week or two at a time. Some of it even sloshes out in the front yard from all the trucks carrying it. I don’t like it, so I am moving. If the park doesn’t want him to use it, maybe they should pay for him to use regular fertilizer and not human crap.
The property belongs to Wesley Wright. It should be his call.
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