Ammendment of Regulations Pertaining to Biosolids after Transfer from Dept. of Health
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Additional public comments - Proposed Biosolids Regulations
Mary Graf
456 Ruckers Road
Concord, VA24538
434-993-2122
29 April 2011 – 4pm
1. Hours of operation must be limited to regular business hours so that DEQ and county monitors will be available to do their jobs. Spreading at 3 and 4 a.m. while monitors are still home in bed is not a procedure that will ensure regulation compliance.
2. Phosphorus needs to be included with Nitrogen when gauging how much sludge can be applied. The regulation draft allows for routine overloading of P, which results in runoff into waterways and the Bay.
3. There needs to be a permanent pH management plan so that metals and other toxic persistent chemicals can’t mobilize, leach into groundwater, or be picked up by plants. It seems this should be the responsibility of the farmer so as to assure the safety of his soil.
4. Provision for notifying future buyers of sludged land needs to be included in the regulations. Future owners need to be made aware of the importance of pH management, as well as any crop-growing restrictions that may be in effect. The lame amendment made to several county permits does not suffice.
5. Signs
-need to be 4’x8’ and include warning orange on them in order to be noticed
-letters need to be large enough to be read by passing vehicles
-signs must be placed near the road and not behind fences, and not at hills or curves where attention needs to be on driving
-additional signs are needed when the site includes adjacent residences on more than one roadway
-signs need to include a 24/7 contact number that connects with a person, not a voice mail box
-signs need to stay in place a full year in order to alert the public of necessary precautions
6. Provision needs to be made for ensuring that all landowners, and the correct landowners, have signed the permit.
7. Landowners need to sign that they have received complete and unbiased information on what sewage sludge biosolids is, not just that it’s free. The definition of “pollution” needs to be included since the permit is for pollution abatement. Landowners must accept in writing full responsibility for any negative health or environmental effects that may occur either immediately or in the future.
8. Identification of the land application site must include:
-the street/route and some sort of address number by which citizens can easily locate the site in relation to an address of particular interest to them
-topographical map must be less than two years old, since buildings and other relevant changes can occur in a short period of time.
9. Biosolids cannot be called “nonhazardous”, since by definition biosolids refers to pollutants which by their nature are hazardous. To state that biosolids is nonhazardous is misleading, dishonest, and wrong.
10. Use of the term “board” needs to be made more transparent. When it does not refer directly to the Water Control Board, as “board” is defined in the regulations, then the alternate meaning must be clearly stated.
11. Regulations need to be able to be enforced. Such words as “may”, “discretion”, “modifications”, “variances”, “substantial compliance” render the regulations in fact unenforceable, and therefore lacking the ability to protect human health and the environment as required by VA Code.
12. “Odor sensitive receptor” should not refer to a building, but rather to an individual or to individuals in buildings, as was the original intent.
13. “Sewage sludge” definition, in addition to domestic septage, should name industrial, hospital, morgue, slaughter house, and municipal runoff waste, as being part of sewage sludge – actually anything that goes “down the drain”. Definitions need to be accurate and complete.
14. The “Voucher system” used for documentation and recordkeeping needs to either be handled by a third party, or annually audited by a third party.
15. Regulations need to state exactly how persons residing on property bordering sites will be notified when individual notification is required.
16. Regulations need to state who determines “unreasonable health risks”, how the risks are weighed, how the public is notified when such a situation arises, and what regress the public has if they do not agree with the assessment.
17. Regulations need to allocate funds to be used specifically for expanded testing on sludge constituents, effects of the biosolids program on human health and the environment, and other studies that could further protect against risks inherent in the practice of land applying sewage sludge biosolids.
