09/11/08

U. S. Senate Environment Committee Cancels Biosolids Hearing, Then Briefing

Since the spring, the U. S. Senate's Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), chaired by California Senator Barbara Boxer, has been considering holding a public hearing on biosolids recycling to land and related U. S. EPA policy. Earlier this month, a date for the hearing was announced on the website "sludgenews.org," a relatively new website created by the Resource Institute for Low Entropy Systems (RILES), but was never formally announced by the EPW.

A week before the scheduled date, the hearing was downgraded to a briefing with four "witnesses:" Georgia Farmer Andy McElmurray, former EPA scientist David Lewis, former director of the Cornell Waste Management Institute Ellen Harrison, and Leland Myers representing the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA). A briefing does not involve sworn testimony and can be held by a sub-set of a Committee - in this case, some of the Democratic members.

On September 11, the scheduled day of the event, the Senate Committee's website noted the briefing was cancelled, but that "additional EPW hearings and briefings on EPA's wastewater programs will be announced at a future date."

The reason for the cancellation was noted in a September 11th E&E Daily story: "Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Democrats canceled this morning's briefing on U.S. EPA's sewage sludge program late last night after learning witnesses scheduled to testify were using it as leverage in a court case. A Sept. 3 letter obtained by E&E Daily reveals lawyers for Georgia dairy farmer Andy McElmurray and David Lewis, a visiting scientist at the University of Georgia, urged the University of Georgia Research Foundation and individual University of Georgia defendants to settle a case related to the program before a planned Sept. 11 hearing.... In their letter, lawyers for McElmurray and Lewis asked that the university provide Lewis with temporary employment in its Marine Sciences Department 'to help restore his reputation at UGA.' They requested the defendants pay McElmurray and another farmer, G. William Boyce, $100,000 each for a total amount of $200,000. They also asked a university researcher to provide a letter stating she agreed with the federal judge's conclusion last spring.... If all terms were met, the lawyers pledged to dismiss the research foundation and University of Georgia individuals from the lawsuit."

All summer, the "sludgenews" website has been encouraging those who believe they have been affected by biosolids land application programs to write letters to the EPW Committee. Several are posted on the website, as is a letter from Abby Rockefeller, President of RILES, a member of the Board of Advisors of the Center for Food Safety (CFS), and a leader of Clivus Multrum, a composting toilet company.

RILES is a Boston-based organization that promotes low-tech solutions for sanitation, such as composting. It is directed by Laura Orlando, who, with Rockefeller, were organizers of the November 2001 "sludge conference" at Boston University, at which David Lewis spoke. RILES and CFS were the lead organizations on the 2003 petition to U. S. EPA requesting a moratorium on the land application of biosolids (which U. S. EPA rejected with a strong letter rebutting all allegations). In their September 11 news release - which may not have been published, since the briefing it described did not occur - Orlando says: ""Five years after the first sludge petition was delivered to the EPA, this horrible practice continues," said Orlando. "It is a dangerous and reckless disposal of hazardous waste. The result is that, throughout the country, our food is being grown on toxic waste."

RILES has long opposed biosolids recycling and centralized treatment systems; Rockefeller wrote in 2007: "Sewage treatment is at best a dreadful mistake, at worst a vast scam serving the engineering corporations that lay the pipes and the development interests that follow on the heels of the pipers.... The Clean Water Act is a sewering act, not an act to protect water... Therefore #1: don't sewer."

The recent RILES media campaign led to publication of several news stories September 11th about the cancelled Senate Committee briefing (http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1046986420080910, http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/122112452267510.xml&coll=3). RILES had scheduled a press conference at 9:15 that morning at the Senate office building.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Grumbles, Assistant Administrator at U. S. EPA's Office of Water, submitted a letter to the EPW Committee on September 10th, stating "better sewage collection, effective pretreatment of industrial wastewater, improved sewage treatment and collection systems, and appropriate sewage sludge management have combined to benefit our Nation's waterways and support public health. EPA continues to support biosolids management in compliance with Federal and state regulation and is committed to ensuring that the sewage sludge regulations protect public health and the environment. We believe EPA's biosolids management regulations are protective, but also acknowledge there is more we can and will do to reduce uncertainty in our knowledge. Good science and information must and will continue to drive our decisions. We will continue to evaluate health effects, occurrence, treatment, and risk reduction strategies so that we can make sound decisions to protect public health. We will continue to use an open and deliberative process. We will continue to work with states, local government, industry, and the public to ensure the safety of the nation's biosolids."

Publications, records, and details of all events discussed above (e.g. BU conference, CFS petition and EPA response, etc.) are available from the NEBRA office. Additional information about events and court cases in Georgia is available in other news stories on this website.