Aia-UncwHf Fanning, Saturday, May 31,1997
Field Application Of Sewage Sludge Is Contentions Issue
(Continued from Pag* A 1)
regulations which became effec
tive Tuesday, a group called the
Lancaster Heritage and Environ
ment Alliance (LHEA) sponsored
a meeting that was to be held 7
p.m. May 30 at the Lancaster Farm
and Home Cento* in Lancaster.
According to Anne Goeke, pres
ident of LHEA, the LHEA consists
of member organizations such as
the Chesapeake Bay Foundation,
Citizens For Responsible Growth,
the Conestoga Valley Association,
the Historical Preservation Trust,
Lancaster County Conservancy,
the Sierra Club, the Donegal Chap
ter of Trout Unlimited, die Muh
lenberg Botanical Society. Lan
caster Greens, and the Unitarian
Universalist Church of Lancaster
Environmental Task Force.
The Lancaster Farmland Trust,
also a member of LHEA, has abs
tained from participating in the
sewage sludge meeting, but not out
of protest, more to distance itself
from the issue, according to
Goeke.
Five speakers had been sche
duled to speak Tom Sweeney,
a soil scientist involved with the
DEP sewage sludge program (old
and new); Dr. Tim Lutz, a geoch
emist with Westchester University
of Pennsylvania; Hugh Kaufman,
an employee of the U.S. Environ
mental Protection Agency (EPA);
retired analytical chemist Stanford
Tackett; and Jay Snyder, operator
of the Ephrata Area Waste Water
Treatment Plant
They were scheduled to speak
until later Thursday, when Snyder,
who for several years has been a
proponent of applying “biosolids”
on local farmland, said he wasn’t
going to participate because he felt
that LHEA stacked the speakers
with discreditable oppositionists.
According to Snyder, he backed
out of the lineup of speakers
because he felt that the program
was stacked against him as a prop-
CALF K
onent of land application of sew
age sludge.
He said that from an educational
resume perspective he was not
fairly matched against doctorate
holders and researchers; and he
also said that the speakers who are
known to oppose applying sewage
sludge onto land were not credible
spokespeople.
For example, he said he was
opposed to sharing the stage with
scheduled opposition speaker
Hugh Kaufman, who works for the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) in Washington DC.
Snyder provided* a copy of a
1996 letter from assistant EPA
administrator Robert Perciaspepe
that states that Kaufman represents
only himself, and not the agency,
on the issue of biosolids.
The letter reaffirms EPA’s sup
port of the regulations as protect
ing the safety of the environment,
and emphasizes that the EPA reg
ulations were created using
science.
“Mr. Kaufman is an employee
in EPA’s Office of Solid Waste
and Emergency Response. He is
not an employee of EPA’s Office
of Water which is responsible for
the Agency’s biosolids program,”
Percaispepe stated in a late Febru
ary 1996 letter to Dr. Richard
Kuchenrither, president of the
Water Environment Federation in
Alexandria, Va. *
“1 assure you that Mr. Kaufman
has not been authorized to present
the Agency’s views in this area and
that his statements about the use
and disposal of biosolids represent
personal views and not those of the
Agency.”
That letter was made in response
to a letter from Kuchenrither to the
EPA stating concern for Kauf
man’s statements about sewage
sludge dangers.
It must be noted, however, that
Kuchenrither’s non-for-profit
organization has a mission, “to
preserve and enhance the global
water environment,” and it has a
contract with the EPA to produce
educational fact sheets. It provided
some on the beneficial uses of
biosolids.
Snyder also said that scheduled
speaker Stanford Tackett, who
worked for the Indiana University
of Pennsylvania as a researcher
tracking down the availability and
impact of lead in the environment,
was also not the expert the meeting
presented him to be.
Snyder had a copy of court
documents that comment nega
tively on Tackett’s area of exper
tise with regard to its applicability
to biosolids.
On the other hand, Tackett, as a
doctor of analytical chemistry,
spent years researching the toxic
metal lead in its various forms in
the environment
And while Kaufman was not
reached for comment a member of
one of the organizations involved
with the alliance contacted Lan
caster Farming this week, after
becoming aware of the interest in
publicizing the meeting.
According to K. Aubrey Hottell,
with the Conestoga Valley Associ
ation, who is currently working on
completing a bachelor’s degree in
science at Millersville University,
she is vigorously opposed to app
lying sewage sludge as a beneficial
soil amendment
She said she suspects a conflict
of interest by those, such as Snyd
er, whose livelihood directly bene
fits from being able to spread sew
age sludge on farmland.
Snyder said that he suggested
that a Penn State University Exten
sion researchers sit in his stead as a
speaker, though he said that wasn’t
accepted.
The issue is apparently conten
tious because both sides are able to
claim the use of science to support
their positions, and neither side has
enough science to completely
refute statements by the other side.
However, that’s the nature of
science. The scientific method
doesn’t allow for making absolute
statements or conclusions without
irrefutable proof.
At the same time, it depends on
intuition and hypotheses in order to
advance and begin and develop a
proper investigation.
However the meeting ended,
Goeke said it was known to be a
topic worthy of investigation and
debate, and one that had strong
opponents and proponents.
She maintained that the only
agenda of the LHEA was to pro
vide a forum for both sides of the
issue and subissues.
It also was to provide an oppor
tunity for the state Department of
Environmental Protection to pre
sent its new regulations concern
ing sewage sludge land
applications.
Helen Moyer, a representative
of the Lancaster League of Women
Mark L. James
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54 Queen Road, P.O. Box 497
Intercourse, PA 17534
(717)768-7100
Office also in:
New Holland
(717)354-6083 j
Voters, was to have served as
panel moderator in the two-hour
forum.
According to Sweeney, with
DEP, he intended to discuss a little
of the old program and the changes
under the new program.
In brief, he said that the new
program allows less permitting
paperwork by the state, less sub
mission to a state office of paper
work by the company applying
sewage sludge, and higher limits
of the heavy metals and chemicals
of concern.
Sweeney explained that while
the paperwork requirements for
both the state and the regulated
industry would be less, the require
ment to keep documentation and to
make it available to DEP upon
demand, on site, would increase.
He said that the program
changed departments under the
DEP (which is only two years old
and still undergoing some changes
to tackle programs initiated under
the old DER).
He said that since there are
inspectors already in the field
looking at treatment plants, that
Turnpike Farmers’
Markets Open
HARRISBURG (Dauphin Co.)
Just in time for Memorial Day
travel, Agriculture Secretary
Charles C. Brosius announced that
farmers’ markets along the Penn
sylvania Turnpike have reopened.
The maikets for travelers on the
turnpike arc located at the Al
lenton, New Stanton, Sideling
Hill, and Valley Forge Service
plazas. This is the segond year for
the New Stanton and Valley Forge
markets, and the third year for the
Allentown and Sideling Hill mar
kets.
For more information on farm
markets or pick-your-own loca
tions, call a regional office of the
Agriculture Department;
* Region 1 - Meadville - (814)
332-6890 (northwestern Pennsyl-
James R. Clark
they are to get the added responsi
bility of inspecting records for
sludge applications and to make
sure documentation is don*
properly.
The permits issued under the
new system will be fewer, but the
amount of information required
will not decrease. There is
expected to be no lessening of
oversight by the state for keeping
track of the farms involved, but
each farm property won’t have to
be permitted separately.
The allowing of higher levels of
heavy metals and other chemicals
before land is no longer suitable to
receive sludge is a reflection of
federal standards set by the EPA.
Sweeney explained that when Pen
nsylvania set its initial standards it
didn’t have the expertise and
resources, or risk assessment anayt
Isis, that the EPA has had in dev"
loping its levels.
That potentially may allow a
farm closed under the old system
to be repermitted, but Sweeney
said there have been very few
farms every closed down from
receiving the set limit of metals.
vania)
* Region 2 - Montoursville -
(717) 433-2640 (northcentral
Pennsylvania)
* Region 3 - Tunkhannock -
(717) 836-2181 (northeastern
Pennsylvania)
* Region 4 - Gibsonia - (412)
443-1585 (southwestern Pennsyl
vania)
* Region 5 - Altoona - (814)
946-7315 (southwest centrdh
Pennsylvania)
* Region 6 - Summerdale -
(717) 787-3400 (southeast central
Pennsylvania
* Region 7 - Creamery - (610)
489-1003 (southeastern Pennsyl
vania)
Those interested in becoming a
vendor at any market should con
tact Mike Varner at (717)
787-4210.
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