The Proper Questions About Sludge

Bedford County Supervisor Annie Pollard came close to asking the most important question the other night about the spread of biosolids on farmland in the county. But she stopped short of it.

The discussion that came before the board focused on whether and to what extent the board should become involved in farm-related matters between the state and the county’s farmers. The supervisors appointed the agricultural board to advise them on such matters and to resolve problems that come up from time to time.

The agricultural board had asked the state to speed up the regulatory process for biosolids so they could get on with the business of applying for permits and having the sludge spread on hayfields and pasture land. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality assumed oversight of treated municipal sewage sludge from the state health department in January. DEQ is still working on regulations that would govern the spread of the sludge — a controversial matter because of the potential existence in the sludge of substances harmful to human health.

Many in Bedford and other counties in Central Virginia have publicly opposed the spread of the nutrient-rich sludge, which is said to be beneficial to farmlands. But Bedford farmers, along with their colleagues in other counties, see the free sludge as a way to cut fertilizer costs in their farming operations.

Jeff Powers, chairman of the agricultural advisory board, said farmers are concerned about the state’s delay in processing their applications for the spread of sludge on their lands. “The cost of fertilizer ... is going to be key if some of them can stay in business,” he told the board.

DEQ officials have said that permits for the spread of sludge are being accepted. But, if the permit had not been approved before the regulatory change took place, that farmer must reapply and start over again.

Members of Bedford’s agricultural board sent a letter to DEQ and other state officials seeking to speed up the process. The letter was signed by the farmers and not by the Board of Supervisors, which prompted the discussion.

Pollard said the county doesn’t know the long-term effects of the sludge, some of which comes from out-of-state sewage treatment plants. She raised the question about the potential health effects, but then backed away from it too soon. “The best thing we can do is stay out of it,” said Pollard.

On that, she is wrong. Control of the spread of biosolids in the commonwealth properly resides with state government in Richmond, but it is altogether proper for local governments to have more input in the granting of permits. (The approach Virginia takes in granting air and water permits could serve as a model to follow.)

Far more important than a free source of fertilizer for Bedford farmers are the long-term effects of sludge on the environment. How safe to human health is the treated sewage sludge? Where does it come from? What industries or manufacturing processes are contributing to it?

The state doesn’t really know. For that matter, the federal Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t really know, either. And no one in Richmond, at least, seems to be in any rush to answer those and dozens of other questions about the possible hazardous effects of sludge on the health of humans living near the fields on which it is spread.

Those are questions the supervisors should be asking. Annie Pollard came close, but then she said, “The best thing we can do is stay out of it.” Not really. The best thing the supervisors can do is keep raising the questions until they get some answers. The health of future generations in the county is far more important than today’s cost differential for a truckload of fertilizer for the farmers’ fields.