Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
The Sludge Capital Rural Land, Lack of Money
Made DeSoto County A Dumping Ground
8/19/2003 Herald Tribune
DeSoto County is home to about 32,000 people, a population incapable of
generating between 3 million and 5 million gallons of sewage sludge.
Yet that's how much of the gunky waste is dumped in DeSoto per month, according
to Assistant County Administrator Jean Fisher. About 70 loads a day are spread
on 16,000 acres of ranchland, cropland and orange groves.
The sludge is a byproduct of waste-water treatment plants in Southwest Florida,
as well as from Key West, Miami and elsewhere in the state, according to the
state Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP estimates that DeSoto
receives 15 percent to 20 percent of all sludge used on agricultural lands in
Florida.
How does a rural, sparsely populated county become the state's sludge capital?
DeSoto has what waste-disposal companies need: a lot of agricultural land, and
landowners willing to accept sludge. (About 55 percent of the nation's sludge is
dumped on farmland.)
Another factor contributes to DeSoto's dubious status: The county has a narrow
tax base; as a result, DeSoto cannot afford an endless bill for legal fees, and
in 2002 corporate lawyers buzzed around DeSoto like flies on a fresh pile of
sludge.s dubious status: The county has a narrow tax base; as a result, DeSoto
cannot afford an endless bill for legal fees, and in 2002 corporate lawyers
buzzed around DeSoto like flies on a fresh pile of sludge.
First, Azurix North America sued when the DeSoto County Commission banned the
spreading of Class B sludge, which gets a low grade of treatment. A federal
judge ruled the ban illegal.
Then, the County Commission found itself in a legal battle with American Water
Works -- a company that bought Azurix and which in 2002 reported earnings of $1
billion. At issue were the commission's restrictions on where sludge could be
dumped. Negotiations continue.
If the creek rises
Last Tuesday, the commissioners passed two ordinances that regulate the
transportation and land-application of sewage sludge. The ordinances are steps
in the right direction, but they are too weak to ensure adequate protection of
people and wildlife.
For example, the new ordinances would not have made enough difference June 23
when flooding occurred along Horse Creek, a Peace River tributary. Water reached
11 homes in Hidden Acres in DeSoto County, including a home Molly Bowen occupies
with her four children and her mother. Bowen told us she could smell the
distinctive, pungent odor of sewage sludge as floodwaters entered her home.
Under the new ordinances, sludge cannot be put within 1,500 feet of the center
of Horse Creek. Tania Bond, whose home was also flooded, says Horse Creek was
2,000 to 3,000 feet beyond its bank. Those conditions show why, at a minimum, no
sludge should be allowed within floodplains designated by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency.
Last year, after a series of stories on sludge by Herald-Tribune reporter Scott
Carroll, the Editorial Board advocated a ban on the use of Class B sludge on all
farmland. We now believe Class A sludge poses enough of a threat to warrant
additional safeguards.
DeSoto residents wouldn't be in this mess if the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency had conservative, science-based standards for sludge that were supported
by adequate state and federal enforcement. Instead, the EPA has a cozy
relationship with the sludge industry and promotes the use of sludge as
fertilizer.
Health complaints
In 2001, DeSoto residents found the EPA unwilling to thoroughly investigate
their complaints that sludge dumped in the county was making them sick.
Earthjustice, a national advocacy group, is now representing 17 DeSoto residents
in a lawsuit against ranchers and disposal companies.
Dr. David Lewis, formerly a microbiologist at the EPA's research laboratory in
Athens, Ga., took seriously the residents' complaints about chronic diarrhea,
nausea, skin rashes, ear infections and rotovirus. He spoke at a March 8, 2002,
public meeting in DeSoto and said residents have valid concerns about their
health. Unfortunately, that was the extent of the EPA's response and Lewis was
later dismissed from his job.
The EPA's assignment of a low priority to sludge, coupled with a lack of
attention to health complaints, are among the reasons that the public agency is
viewed as complicit with the private industry.
Twenty days after Lewis spoke in DeSoto, an attorney for Synagro Technologies
Inc., a large sludge-disposal company, wrote to the general counsel of the
Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies. He requested the association's
help to get Lewis to stop speaking out against sewage sludge. The executive
director of the association also complained to the EPA concerning an article
Lewis wrote about sludge.
Did EPA administrators and the waste- water industry circle their wagons after
Lewis spoke in DeSoto? No. For years, they've been riding in the same sludge-
fueled wagon.
This is the fourth editorial in the "Waste Land" series, which began on Sunday.