Biosolids project on Hold in Schuylkill Township

CELDF note: Back in 2005 Schuylkill Township considered adopting a community rights ordinance but were persuaded not to by the municipal solicitor. Jeff Faust (cited in this article), Supervisor from East Brunswick Township, once supported and voted to adopt the CELDF drafted ordinance but later negotiated away his community's rights in conversations with the PA attorney general's office -- at the same time the AG filed a legal brief in Commonwealth Court asserting that "There is no inalienable right to local self-government." (Corbett vs. East Brunswick, Jan 31, 2008). Faust and his fellow Supervisors rescinded the community rights  ordinance and replaced it with one that was not offensive to waste haulers and agribusiness corporations.The new ordinance now has been challenged by the AG and stripped down to a few limitations on sludge application on major holidays and posting of signs.


MARYD - A project that would bring Harrisburg sewage sludge into Schuylkill Township has been put on hold.

"We were entertaining the idea of sending some of our materials up to the Schuylkill County project, but the project is on hold until after the (Nov. 2) election," John Williams, director of administration and maintenance at the Harrisburg Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility, said this week.

"The players involved are not sure they want to go through with the project," said Trudy Johnston, president of Material Matters, an Elizabethtown consulting firm planning to oversee the permitting process and use of sewage sludge, also called biosolids, in the mine reclamation six miles west of Tamaqua. "The companies involved wanted to regroup and talk internally. We would never move forward without coming back to the people."

Representatives of Material Matters attended the Sept. 1 supervisors meeting in Schuylkill Township explaining the project.

Mark Carmon, state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman, said Tuesday the office does not have an application or permit modification regarding the project.

"I believe Material Matters is still working with the township at this point," Carmon said.

The area is a surface mining site between MaryD and Tuscarora, on the north side of the Schuylkill Valley not far from the MaryD water reservoir and baseball field complex. The land is owned by Schuylkill County and leased to Premium Coal, Hazleton, according to township records.

According to Lisa Mahall, Schuylkill County engineer and real estate director, Michael Coal Co. is the sublessee and has submitted a request to use biosolids on the land.

"The county has a biosolids ordinance that would require the county to sign a landowner consent for the use of biosolids and no decision has been made at this point," Mahall said.

Calls to Tim Miller, a representative of Michael Coal Co., Lykens, were not returned. Mike Carsia Sr., owner of Premium Coal, said he would also have to agree to the use of biosolids before the project could take place.

"The only way I would even entertain that idea is if I had proper documentation from DEP and the people of Schuylkill Township that it was OK," Carsia said. "I have a good rapport with the people of that community and I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize that."

Biosolids, the by-product of domestic and commercial sewage and waste water treatment and used as fertilizer on farms and in mine reclamation projects, has stirred controversy. Some environmentalists say biosolids pose a risk of air and groundwater contamination and contain traces of heavy metals and other toxins.

Johnston touted the project's worthiness.

"Is it a great project? You bet it is. That is why we are there," Johnston said. "It's a large tract of land that has been permanently disturbed from past practice. There are erosion issues and culm laying there and the person mining the area already tried to establish vegetation there and can't make a go of it."

Williams said he believes some politicians may be against the project.

The Schuylkill Township supervisors sent a letter to the county commissioners asking them not to issue permits for the project.

"The day they spread it on the rose garden at the White House and the president's kids play in it or the day they spread it on Strawberry Square in Harrisburg for the senators and representatives to smell is the day they can bring it into Schuylkill Township," Supervisor Linda DeCindio said.

Both state Sen. Dave Argall, R-29, and state Rep. Jerry Knowles, R-124, expressed concern about the project.

"Many local residents, when they first heard about this proposal, were very concerned about the future of their community," Argall said. "It's very possible that what might sound like a simple proposal could have very significant ramifications on the health of the entire area - the water quality and air quality. They've got a lot of legitimate concerns. That's why I believe state and local officials need to very carefully evaluate this matter and its long-term potential impact on MaryD, Tuscarora and Brockton, really the entire Schuylkill Township region."

Knowles is opposed to using biosolids in the project.

"It's a health hazard. It's bad stuff," Knowles said. "I will do everything in my power to stop this. I am opposed to it now and I'll be opposed to it in January or February or whenever the subject comes up. I don't want the stuff anywhere in the district I represent."

Knowles said representatives from Material Matters called him and wanted to meet with him.

"I said I would meet with them in my Tamaqua office ... ," Knowles said. "They came into my Harrisburg office the day before the scheduled meeting and canceled."

Knowles' challenger in the 124th House race, Jeff Faust, said he was invited to speak at an upcoming Schuylkill Township supervisor's meeting.

As an East Brunswick Township supervisor, Faust and the other supervisors were challenged by the state attorney general's office regarding the township's 2006 biosolids ordinance. The matter was later settled with some revisions to the ordinance.

"My thoughts are there has to be better monitoring and regulations in place. There is no monitoring for well water, for one thing," Faust said. "Also, you can't bury a material that contains pollutants and cover it over with green grass and call it a success. That's just burying a problem."

This is not the first time a biosolids issue has come up in the township.

In 2006, Coal Creek Ranch, a sister company to Reading Anthracite, informed the Schuylkill Township supervisors of its intention to spread the material on abandoned pasture and timber land north of Route 209 between Tuscarora and the Odd Fellows Cemetery, according to a The Republican & Herald archives.

The township received a letter from the DEP stating it had received and reviewed the application by Coal Creek and it was determined that the site was suitable for application of biosolids under the permit, as long as biosolids signs are posted to restrict access.

At a 2006 public meeting, Russell and Antoinette Pennock of Mohrsville, Berks County, spoke out against biosolids and said their son, Daniel, 17, died in 1995 of viral and bacterial pneumonia and rotavirus after being exposed to land-applied sewage sludge.

"It ended up nothing was ever dumped here," DeCindio said.

Schuylkill Township has an ordinance in place since April 2005 regulating the use of biosolids and other municipalities have passed similar ordinances, including Tamaqua, Mahanoy City, and Barry, Rush, Branch and East Brunswick townships.

In 2008, Tamaqua borough officials contested a state environmental agency's assessment that biosolid sewage sludge used on a farm next to Still Creek Reservoir poses no danger to the water of the Tamaqua-area residents who drink it.