Subj: Fw: Letter to
Congress
Date: 10/14/2001 3:57:23 PM Central Daylight
Time
From:
http://lw2fd.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?curmbox=F000000001&a=a1fc9ef8e7d2b41472332852c7b63995&mailto=1&to=chartmannsa%40taconic%2enet&msg=MSG1003148580.50&start=3930180&len=26454&src=&type=x
(Charlotte Hartman)
This letter on National Sludge Alliance
letterhead was mailed on October 15th
to The House Science
Committee, Senate and Public works Committee and the
Appropriations Committee.
The National Sludge
Alliance calls on Congress to halt the land application
of
sewage sludge because current federal and state laws governing this
practice are not protective of human health, agricultural
productivity, and
the environment. We call on Congress to
do all in its power to protect
public health and safety and the
environment by halting the land disposal of
toxic industrial
waste-laden sludge that now includes plutonium and other
atomic
wastes on any American land-farmland, gravel pits, deforested areas
or
stripped mines. EPA has not done a peer-reviewed study that
includes farmers
and the general public who are being exposed to
toxic sludge. We call on
Congress to end the disposal of
radioactive wastes to sewage treatment plants
anywhere in the
country. In addition NSA calls for an end to taxpayer funding
for the National Biosolids Partnership a government backed PR
group organized
to promote the dangerous practice of sludge land
disposal, despite mounting
evidence that the policy is unsafe
and despite widespread public opposition.
The National
Sludge Alliance - a coalition of grassroots organizations
opposed to spreading sludge on land and to any reference to it
as
"fertilizer" - calls it an unpredictable hazardous waste that
must always be
treated as a pollutant.
Under the
leadership of Congressman Sensenbrenner, the full House Science
Committee hearings on March 22nd last year revealed a pattern of
retaliation
and intimidation of whistleblower scientists within
the EPA, a scientist from
Cornell, and from a California diary
farmer. Further, the Inspector General's
Audit report entitled
"Biosolids Management and Enforcement" said," the EPA
does not
have an effective program for ensuring compliance with land
application (of sewage sludge) requirements of the Part 503
rules, issued by
the Office of Water. Accordingly, while EPA
promotes the application, EPA
cannot assure the public that
current land application practices are
protective of human
health and the environment."
Specifically, NSA calls on
Congress to prohibit land application of sludge
that contains
pathogens and persistent pollutants, including radioactive
waste. These requests have become more urgent since the recent
judicial
decision in a federal whistleblower case involving
questions over whether
plutonium and other atomic wastes are
safe fertilizer additives. Adrienne
Anderson, appointed to
represent the sewage plant workers' safety and health
concerns
on the Metro Water Reclamation District in Denver, Colorado was
awarded nearly half a million dollars in damages, including
$150,000 in
punitive damages, among the largest punitive damage
awards on record in
whistleblower case law, according to the
National Whistleblower Center.
Judge David W. DiNardi of Boston concluded that the Metro
Water Reclamation
District had engaged in at least a five-year
campaign of illegal, retaliatory
and outrageous acts against
Anderson one its own board members who had
publicly disclosed
critically important information, vital to occupational
and
public health.
The matter at issue involved the sewage
district's plan - since enacted,
unfortunately, despite
widespread public controversy and unanimous citizen
opposition
in public comments of record - flushing a plutonium-contaminated
Superfund Site in Colorado, the Lowry Landfill, to public sewers
to a
non-NRC-licensed facility whose workers are not even
protected under OSHA,
for redistribution as "fertilizer" on farm
land growing crops for human
consumption, and in bagged material
marketed commercially as "MetroGroT", for
use on home gardens.
This precedent setting permit to allow atomic bomb
wastes to be
discharged to the sewage treatment plant will open the door for
disposal of radioactive wastes around the country in blatant
disregard for
public health and safety.
NSA also
urgently requests that the National Biosolids Partnership no longer
be funded with tax dollars. This coalition of the regulator
(EPA) and the
regulated (WEF, AMSA) is using public funds to
mount a massive public
relations campaign to change "public
perception" regarding toxic sludge as a
suitable material for
land disposal on agricultural lands. Instead, these
funds should
be used to research and implement safe alternatives for the
management, treatment and disposal of toxic sewage sludge that
do not
compromise human health, our environment or the safety of
the nation's food
supply. The term "biosolids" is a public
relation agency-coined term used to
linguistically detoxify
sludge and convince the public that it is safe. Grant
money
earmarked for hazardous waste cleanup was used by the partnership to
"debunk" rather than investigate cases of harm.
Metro Wastewater Reclamation
District (MWRD), under the leadership of Robert H. Hite, has
waged an illegal
smear campaign against Anderson after she
disclosed evidence of plutonium in
a waste stream MWRD had
secretly agreed to accept, while subsequently issuing
a permit
to discharge plutonium and other radioactive wastes into the public
sewer lines. Robert Hite heads both the NBP and Metro Wastewater
in Colorado.
Ironically, Metro Wastewater is one of the 27
plants chosen to illustrate
"good management practices".
Continued use of taxpayer money to support this
partnership run
by a man whose own agency has engaged in illegal and
retaliatory
acts against its own workers' representative concerned about the
safety of nuclear waste in toxic sewage sludge is a clear
example of abuse of
the public trust.
At a time
when the safety of our food supplies is of paramount importance, we
ask our elected officials to stop the destruction of our
valuable productive
farmland with a policy that allows toxic
chemicals, heavy metals, pathogens,
and radioactive wastes as
"fertilizer." Further, we request that Congress use
its
legislative power and protect public health and safety from this
controversial EPA policy and discontinue public funding of the
"National
Biosolids Partnership" in the public interest.
We, the members of the National Sludge Alliance, thank you
in advance for
your consideration of these requests and await
your prompt reply.
Sincerely,
Charlotte
Hartman, Coordinator
Enclosed: Reference
List/Scientific Papers and Reports
Sources:
·
National Biosolids Partnership, statement of Robert H. Hite,
Chairman at
http://216.32.180.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=4877e38f7e31d89e6d8dc547d2c323a0&lat=1003162766&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fbiosolids%2epolicy%2enet%2fwelcome%2f·
Recommended Decision and Order, District Chief Judge David W.
DiNardi, U.S.
Department of Labor Office of Administrative Law
Judges, in Anderson v. Metro
Wastewater Reclamation District,
Case No. 1997-SDW-7, September 18, 2001.
The Department of
Labor has now posted Chief District Judge David W.
DiNardi's
September 18, 2001 ruling in the whistleblower case Anderson v
Metro Wastewater Reclamation District at its government website,
for those
who wish to review the entire, 80-page decision.
The matter at issue involved
the
sewage district's plan - since enacted, unfortunately, despite
widespread
public opposition- to flush a plutonium-contaminated
Superfund Site in
Colorado, the Lowry Landfill, to public sewers
to a non-NRC-licensed facility
whose workers are not even
protected under OSHA, for redistribution as
"fertilizer" on farm
land growing crops for human consumption, and in bagged
material
marketed commercially as "MetroGroT", for use on home gardens.
http://216.32.180.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=0c9617f16f14c88cda06cbb4f9eb1285&lat=1003162766&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2eoalj%2edol%2egov%2fpublic%2fwblower%2fdecsn%2f97sdw07c%2ehtm
For more information about MWRD's plan to turn
plutonium-contaminated Lowry
Landfill Superfund Site wastes into
"beneficial biosolids":
·
"Dirty Secrets", 3-part Special Investigation by Pulitzer
Prize-winning journalist Eileen Welsome, at
http://216.32.180.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=c8d6e1fa8c64b5095c87b9ab0cee0b63&lat=1003162766&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ewestword%2ecom%2fwebextra%2flowry%2findex%2ehtml
For general sludge information and links:
·
Sewage Sludge Homepage at
http://216.32.180.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=433f98c753ed24e30a448551807b566d&lat=1003162766&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2eejnet%2eorg%2fsludge%2f
·
http://216.32.180.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=ba9e67431df90336a4dddc2b9e5712a8&lat=1003162766&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2esafer%2dworld%2eorg%2fe%2ftopics%2fsludge%2ehtml
VA Land Application of
Sludge the Uncensored Story by Henry J.
Staudinger (biosolids or biocides?)
· ReSource Institute for
Low Entropy Systems in Boston
http://216.32.180.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=324da01871428322f62a783746c34259&lat=1003162766&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2eriles%2eorg
· "Potential Health Effects of Odor from Animal Operations,
Wastewater
Treatment and Recycling of Byproducts" Journal of
Agromedicine, Volume 7,
Number 1 2000-ISSN: 1059-924X. In the
conclusion, the report in the Journal
of Agromedicine says: "Our
current state of knowledge clearly suggests that
it is possible
for odorous emissions from. . . recycling of biosolids to have
an impact on physical health." ("Recycling of biosolids" refers
to land
spreading of sewage sludge.) Some symptoms related to
inhaling the vapor of
sewage sludge mentioned in this report
are: eye, nose, and throat irritation,
headache, nausea,
hoarseness, cough, nasal congestion, palpitations,
shortness of
breath, stress, drowsiness, chest tightness, an alterations in
mood. For summary go to
http://216.32.180.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=cf98937c02689fcf809004f566d3de37&lat=1003162766&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2epenweb%2eorg%2fissues%2fsludge%2fhealth%2dodor%2ehtm
· David L. Lewis, microbial ecology, works as a research
microbiologist for
US EPA Ecosystems Research Division, and is
an adjunct scientist at the
University of Georgia. "Out of
Control: Ten Case Studies in Regulatory
Abuse." Excerpt from
'Sludge Magic' at the EPA "according to scientists
working for
EPA Office of Research & Development, the sludge rule on land
application of municipal wastes (40 CFR Part 503) promulgated in
1993 may be
the most scientifically unsound action ever taken by
the agency. Rather than
being protective, the rule actually
threatens public health and the
environment."
http://216.32.180.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=7c63ecdabca10c58a209db267499d771&lat=1003162766&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fmembers%2eaol%2ecom%2fLewisDaveL%2fProceedings%2ehtm 