That’s how Sharon Chiao explained why she has joined others fighting plans to dump sewage sludge on reclaimed mine lands in this area. She spoke to the Militant after a July meeting of the Mahanoy Creek Watershed Association, which has taken up this health and environmental struggle.

Chiao, whose brother is a retired union miner, is one of many who have become active in the struggle to defend the health of thousands of residents in the central area of this hard-coal region of northeast Pennsylvania.

This diverse group of people--including working and retired miners, teachers, other workers of all types, students, and small business owners--is joining together to oppose the drive by Reading Anthracite, Gilberton Coal, and Waste Management Processors (WMPI) to gain permission for a one-time spreading of Class B biosolids --otherwise known as sewage sludge--over land in the region. The sludge, it is claimed, will promote new growth of vegetation.

The companies are part of the holdings of the Rich family, one of the biggest coal operators in the area. The land involved covers more than 6,500 acres. In the first stage around 1,000 acres would be spread with the sludge. Minor revisions to the permit would allow the company to also use the remaining 5,500 acres for dumping.

This year the Philadelphia Water Department will pay WMPI $37 per ton to dump their sludge. The one-year contract for dumping 40,000 tons would net the company $1.5 million.

Opponents of the dump turned up the heat at a September 3 meeting at Mt. Carmel High School in Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania. Attended by 200 people, the hearing, which was organized by the Pennsylvania House Democratic Policy Committee, heard testimony by a range of officials and experts on why current rules governing the dumping of sewage sludge open up dangers to public health.

Jim Lamont, the international safety representative for the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA); Joseph Cocalis, a retired officer of the U.S. Public Health Service; Lawrence Breech, president of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union; and David Lewis, a research microbiologist who works for the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), testified at the session.  
 
Pathogens remain after treatment
Class B biosolids are made up of the wastes from water and sewage treatment plants that have been treated to kill about 95 percent of their pathogens, or disease-causing agents. After this treatment they can still contain arsenic, lead, mercury, and other heavy metals, as well as pathogens such as salmonella and campylobacter. There is also evidence that typhoid, dysentery, tapeworms, and other menaces to health are present in sludge when it is dumped.

The miners union became involved in the fight in 1999 when eight miners working at the Powers strip mine in Centre County suffered diarrhea, bloody vomiting, and other symptoms following the dumping of sludge near the mine--a practice that had been followed since September 1994.

In October that same year 11-year-old Tony Behun came home covered with dirt after riding his bike through fresh sludge at Osceola Mills in the same area. Within two days he had come down with a headache and sore throat, followed by an outbreak of boils. In a week he was dead from a massive bacterial infection. Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has consistently denied any connection between the sludge and the boy’s death. EPA officials have gone even further, claiming that there is no evidence linking exposure to sewage sludge to any illness or death.

Breech pointed to the weakness of the "503 rules"--guidelines adopted by the EPA in 1993 to govern the spreading of sludge. He described results from other countries where sludge has been subjected to further treatment before being dumped. "Sewage sludge can and should be recycled, rather than incinerated or buried in landfills," he said. "But it should not be used in the way it is now."

The 503 rules remain controversial across the spectrum of the debate. After conducting a review, the EPA’s Office of Research and Development refused to endorse them. A former EPA research director testified that the agency had received no scientific documents confirming the safety of their proposed levels of heavy metals or supporting their procedures for eliminating bacterial pathogens.

The rules were issued provisionally when the EPA agreed to conduct further research to establish the impact of sludge on plant and animal life as well as on rivers and the water table. These studies have never been conducted. Last April the EPA inspector general criticized the agency for this failure, and in particular for its lack of "a formal process to track health-related complaints." The official’s report concluded that "the EPA cannot assure the public that current land application practices are protective of human health and the environment." The EPA has left to state agencies the job of monitoring the use of sludge and the study of its effect on human health and the environment.

Representatives of WMPI and the Philadelphia water treatment department have not been well received at hearings held over the last eight months. During a meeting in Aristes, Pennsylvania, Chico, a member of the audience bluntly asked them, "What will you do if it goes into the ground water? Can you take it out?" Another stated, "We don’t think we’re getting straight answers. Send us some industry for jobs, not your sludge."

At the September 3 hearing in Mt. Carmel, a trucker driver said, "Not one truck is going to bring sewage sludge here. I’ll park my semi to block the road if I have to."

Sharon Chiao and others in the Mahanoy Creek Watershed Association plan to keep up their fight. At their July meeting they discussed a membership drive, fund-raising projects, and other plans.  
 
 
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