Famed California town may have to fight yet another pollution battle

Don't Make Her Bust Out That Bustier

Note to pollutey people: if you want to keep a low profile, perhaps it's wise not to situate yourself in a location made famous for being unjustly polluted. A sewage-sludge conversion plant is being planned eight miles away from Hinkley, the small California town made forever infamous by Julia Roberts' rack in the based-on-a-true-rack film Erin Brockovich. Hinkley residents fear that the processing of 400,000 tons of sludge a year into compost could kick up bacteria-laden, illness-causing dust -- not to mention an icky smell. The femme crusader herself (Brockovich, not Roberts) issued a statement opposing the plant, noting, "Citizens in this area already have compromised immune systems." An attorney for the sludge company claimed, "The bottom line is that composting biosolids is safe. We're far away from people and communities and from industry." If it's so safe, why do you need to be far away? Just asking.

straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, 01 Mar 2007

see also, in Grist: On Hollywood's downtrodden eco-chicks, and how they've changed

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Comments: (4 comments)

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Saving the Planet: NIMBY

I looked up Hinckley: about 100 mile NE of Los Angeles, in the middle of noplace. It's most attractive feature is the railroad line running through it, pretty much necessary to move 8,000,000,000 pounds a year of treated bio-waste from the cities to the composting plant. One assumes that after processing, the railroad will be delivering some tens of thousands of tons of natural fertilizer to restore farmland near and far.
Unless I missed something, the alternatives to processing all this poo into fertilizer is to burn it (yummy warmer weather anyone?), bury it (there goes the groundwater), or dump it in the ocean (probably where it's going right now).
The obstacle to building and operating this plant is its proximity to the unfortunate citizens of (already polluted) Hinckley.
Here's a thought: insteading of David Geffen pimping campaign funds for the Clintons and Obama among the fabulously wealthy in Hollywood, he passes the hat on behalf of some people who actually need a hand, and uses the proceeds to buy them out and move them someplace that isn't polluted. They get to have a better place to live (call it New Hinckley?), California gets to do something productive and environmentally beneficial with some of its waste, and the fabulously wealthy get to feel good about saving the planet.
And the only losers are those who reflexively oppose anything proposed by Big Business, because it must be evil...

by edarnold41 at 12:06 PM on 02 Mar 2007

Social Priorities

The ultimate question here is "are the fears of the community of Hinckly well founded?" While initial reactions to the subject of human wastes and "sludge" may conjure unpleasant mental images, one should keep in mind that treated sludge is not the same as raw sewage. The fear of odors and/or bacteria wafting 8 miles away are probably not founded in reality. Additionally, rapid decomposition of treated sludge can be achieved odorlessly and efficiently by a simple prescription of pH and beneficial microbial activity. The planet has evolved many elegant ways to recycle materials back into beneficial and healthy soil, and sewage sludge is a part of that cycle. Finding environmenally beneficial uses for our own waste streams should be a social priority.

Sam Nugent VP Sales 360-565-2065 www.theremediators.com

by Remediators at 12:55 PM on 02 Mar 2007

Does sound like NIMBY

It's not clear to me that anybody has identified anything threatening about this plant. In general, this kind of waste disposal is quite positive, yielding a useful compost, and using a process that is significantly better than other options in terms of its climate change impact. As to why it's proposed out in the middle of nowhere... probably because the land is cheap enough to build a sprawling industrial facility on. It sounds to me like somebody's trying to make a story here where there isn't one.

by geosynchronous at 3:21 PM on 02 Mar 2007

Compost

They may be confusing this with odor issues arising from the thermal depolymerization process.

As for dust? Compost stays pretty moist most of the time, I think.

For more on therm depo, see under Waste here:

http://www.xyvy.info/EutopiaFeb07.html

by eutopianow at 1:31 PM on 24 Jun 2007

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