The News & Advance
December 31, 2006
Biosolids remains hot topic
By Sarah Watson
http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=LNA/MGArticle/LNA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149192423454&path=
The message to Campbell County residents opposed to spreading biosolids was loud and clear Friday night: Stand up and return the power of the people back to the people.
Organizers with Citizens Against Toxic Sludge, a local grassroots group, met with more than 200 county residents in Rustburg, where they were told about some of the concerns that come with permitting biosolids to be used as fertilizer. Residents also were told about a plan to fight back, not with lawsuits, but with creative legislation.
Jennifer England, the group’s organizer and a mother of five who moved to Gladys from New Jersey three years ago, said the issue of spreading biosolids, which is treated sewer sludge, in the county isn’t just an environmental fight, but also a battle between corporations and citizens.
“It isn’t just about the sludge. It’s about who gets to decide” what belongs in our community, she said. “This is a root issue of democracy. We the 32,000 voters in Campbell County should have the right to say.”
England, along with several county residents, formed the group shortly after learning that 12 landowners in Campbell County were applying for permission to spread sewer sludge fertilizer on 36 tracts of land.
Currently, 132 acres in Campbell County can be treated with biosolids, but the company on the permit, Nutri-Blend, has yet to spread them.
In November, Campbell County officials learned Nutri-Blend applied for a permit modification with the Virginia Department of Health, the state agency that oversees biosolids regulations, to expand permitted land to more than 3,100 acres.
“The fact of the matter is that regulations mean it’s still here. If you regulate it, it’s coming,” England said. “You don’t actually stop it. We have a chance to stop it before it ever gets down on the ground” in Campbell County.
England and the organization have a plan to do just that. Tuesday, England will present a draft ordinance to the Campbell Board of Supervisors that she hopes will “stop the sludge.”
The group, while under the guidance of Pennsylvania lawyer Tom Linzey, has drafted the ordinance using a creative legal method that targets corporate rights rather than landowners or existing regulations.
“Because (the ordinance is) corporate and not regulatory or land use, (it’s) not protected by the state laws,” Linzey said.
The ordinance “is legal because it doesn’t ban sludge,” England said. “It bans corporations from the land application of sludge.”
County residents at Friday’s meeting - two-thirds of whom were attending their first Citizens Against Toxic Sludge meeting - asked what they could do to stop biosolids from being spread in the county. England told them to show up and be counted at Tuesday’s meeting. She expects a large turnout.
“The only thing we’ve heard is we can’t do anything (about the sludge),” said Tracy Meisenbach, a Brookneal resident and Town Council member who has been working with England.
Shireen Parson, a Christiansburg-based activist who works with Linzey, said there is collusion between state and corporate interests and right now; corporations hold more influence than the people. “You are not alone,” she told those at the meeting. “This is pervasive throughout the country.”
By taking a stand and finding a legal way to block corporations from spreading sludge, county residents are shifting the power back to the citizens, Parsons said. “They can’t take that away from you unless you give it back.”
“If (the supervisors) say no, then you have to be prepared to make a statement with your bodies,” Parsons told the quiet, standing-room only crowd. “Get up and walk out of there.”
“Show up and present a united front that you want this stopped.” Parsons said. “Let the revolution roll on.”