7 October 1997
Ms. Tracey Chapman
Member of the Rochford North
Essex County Council
P.O. Box 11
County Hall
Chelmsford, CM1 1LX, ENGLAND
Re: Hazardous Health Risks of Sewage Sludge Application: Case of the Stambridge Sewage Works, Rochford, Essex, England
Dear Ms. Chapman,
Your letter was forwarded to me by John Stauber, Center for Media and Democracy, and author of "Toxic Sludge is Good for You", the book from which you read the chapter "Let Them Eat Sludge."
Frankly, I was horrified to learn of the preparations to site a sewage sludge facility of the magnitude you have described anywhere - let along within half a mile of local residents. Such a plan is appalling! You have every reason to be concerned about the safety of this operation, and as you so wisely noted, operation of such facilities carries implications for the safety of communities all across your country.
Whoever has told you that these operations are being safely conducted in the United States is lying. The media, public relations firms, big business lobbies, and government agencies, including the EPA, have participated in cover-up of staggering proportions.
Citizens from every region of our country have suffered, and continue to suffer, adverse health impacts from exposures to these facilities. The effects are not limited to humans, but have caused large losses of livestock and crops in the rural areas where agricultural applications have been conducted. During the past 3 to 4 years in the Bronx, New York, 20 to 30 solid waste and sewage sludge operations (e.g., composting, transfer and pellitizing plants), have opened, and there is now an epidemic of death from asthma in that city.
Four years ago we asked a reporter to find a facility - any facility - that worked ("worked" as defined by nearby residents and not operators). To date, we still await such a discovery. The truth is that these operations - indoor and out - simply do not work with the current state of technology.
Untold millions of dollars have been squandered in trying to keep operations of the grossest nature working - rather than redirecting monies to develop technologies that are urgently required - and all at the expense of nearby residents and the environment.
Portland, Oregon is the only city I know of in this country that has attempted to make an operation work but in the end resigned themselves to the fact the reprehensible odors were unabatable, and that workers were significantly affected by adverse health effects. After 9 months, and at the cost of $30 million and much suffering of residents, businesses and workers, the city closed the operation. In the interim a state sponsored worker health study was conducted that clearly demonstrated how sick workers had become from their occupational exposure to waste materials and the microbiological pathogens and attendant toxins associated with the current practices of industrial scale organic decomposition.
The biologic materials associated with sludge and organic waste degradation - disposal of "mother nature's" organic residues as the industry proclaims - are some of the most biologically hazardous substances encountered on earth. In addition to biologic toxins, sludge also is constituted by an admixture of other toxic substances. Municipal sewer systems have become the repository of waste product disposal from industrial chemical wastes, hospital radioactive wastes, and combined chemical wastes of literally millions of households. Levels of heavy metals in sludge are grossly elevated.
Medical problems emerging in communities exposed to these operations are often posing problems that medical practitioners serving these communities have never seen, diagnosed or treated. Physicians are at a loss when faced with patients who in spite of treatment do not get well, or patients who present with puzzling symtomotologies that evade diagnosis or effective treatment. The admixture of toxic substances concentrated in these operations may in fact be creating health problems outside of current medical experience.
Practices of "friendly reuse" of the end-products from these facilities are inherently dangerous. No screening for biologic, chemical or other hazardous substance exists, and the applications of such materials to the soils carries the risk of contamination of the food supply, as well as the risk of loss of sustainable agricultural fields for the next one half century.
As you surely know by now, your community faces formidable hurdles in trying to oppose this plan. CURE is a grass roots organization that was founded to do just that in our country. We are affiliated with the National Sludge Alliance, and are also working with chapters of the Sierra Club and California farm bureaus.
We would be happy to assist you in any way that we can. Our home phone # is: 408-476-8012, and Fax # is: 408-476-8552. I have attached several pages for additional information on our organization. From my heart, I also send with this faxed letter my profoundest concern for your situation, and hope that this insane plan can be derailed in time to protect your community.
Until we next communicate, I close with kindest regards, and am,
Yours very truly,
Citizens United for Responsible Environmentalism, Inc.
CURE
Jane Lilly-Hersley
Director Scientific Research
cc: John Stauber, Center for Media and Democracy