Letters to the Editor for Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Biosolids wouldn’t affect railway trail
As a veterinarian and raiser of dairy heifers for more than 25 years, I have conducted an ongoing review of the scientific literature on biosolids and have studied the results of decades of biosolids land application here in Bedford County. I have found no credible evidence to support the claims made against this beneficial and safe agricultural process. I use biosolids on my farm.

I therefore take exception to Nancy Bockstael’s commentary in the Oct. 4 edition of The News & Advance and her attack on David Orvos, professor of environmental science and chairman of the department of environmental studies at Sweet Briar College, who has explained the science supporting the land application of biosolids.

Bockstael’s commentary is riddled with misinformation and unsupported opinions, wrapped in the cloak of academic authority. She cited news articles as if they were scientific studies and mischaracterized the results of other studies, including the report of the Virginia Expert Panel on Biosolids, which concluded that it had “uncovered no evidence or literature verifying a causal link between biosolids and illness.”

The University of Maryland lists Bockstael as an emeritus economics professor, not a scientist. Her curriculum vitae does not list one research project, publication or course relating to biosolids.

Orvos, who is the biosolids monitor for Amherst County, has undergraduate and master’s degrees in biology and received his Ph.D. degree from Virginia Tech, where he focused on environmental and hazardous materials studies. He is a published authority on environmental risk assessment, toxicology and watershed assessment and restoration.

There’s not the space for a point-by-point refutation of Bockstael’s commentary. However, since her apparent purpose was to create alarm about the impact of biosolids on the Blue Ridge Railway Trail, I will simply point out that there is no evidence, scientific or from experience, that proximity to the land application site will effect the trail or discourage its use.

The available evidence supports the opposite conclusion. For example, thousands of people each year enjoy major riverside hiking and bike trails in Danville and Roanoke that are in close proximity to major wastewater treatment facilities that produce biosolids.

These plants operate 365 days a year, both with lagoons that store and treat biosolids. The Roanoke Valley Bird Club lists the treatment facility’s biosolids lagoons as one of its favorite sites for birding!

Despite all the fear mongering by the opponents of biosolids, the overwhelming body of scientific evidence — developed over decades of research — supports the safety of biosolids.

Orvos, an independent environmental scientist, with no commercial, personal or political ax to grind, has stated that biosolids land application, as currently regulated in Virginia, is supported by the “overwhelming majority of scientific studies” and that biosolids will not have a negative impact on the trail.

We should listen to the real scientists.
DON GARDNER
Bedford