New Haven Independent: Neighbors: Sewage Sludge Is Bad For Us

Neighbors: Sewage Sludge Is Bad For Us

by Melinda Tuhus | January 17, 2007 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

It felt a little like a scene out of “Toxic Sludge Is Good for You“ as East Shore neighbors confronted officials over a long-range plan for handling the region’s sewage.

A dozen residents showed up for the meeting Tuesday night at Nathan Hale School in the East Shore, not far from the Water Pollution Control Authority’s sewage treatment plant where the suburbs send their sludge. Many of them said they only learned about the meeting earlier the same day, and that more people would have attended had they known about it and had advance notice. (DiGangi said a notice was sent to the Register ten days ago, but the paper didn’t publish it ‘til the day of the meeting.)

A handful of residents sparred with the director of the Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority (Dominick DiGangi, pictured) and the project manger from WPCA’s designated consulting firm that will propose a new (or old) way to handle the region’s sewage sludge by 2014. The presenters tried to convince those at the meeting that their input would be considered, and most of those who spoke seemed to not be buying the spin.

brian%20gackstatter.JPG Brian Gackstatter (pictured), project manager from CH2M, the firm analyzing alternatives and coming up with a suggested implementation strategy, apologized when he couldn’t answer many of the public’s questions, explaining that other members of his team who had been planning to come had scheduling conflicts.

Last fall the New Haven Board of Aldermen passed a non-binding resolution urging an end to incineration of the sludge by 2014 as part of the process that regionalized the WPCA. In that process New Haven lost some of its control over operations to the other participating towns “” Hamden, East Haven and Woodbridge. The facility currently processes 22.5 tons per day of sewage sludge, along with 2.5 tons per day of fats, oils and grease imported from other towns.

Gackstatter said his firm studied 20 alternatives and then short-listed six: two proposals for incineration (one to keep the current system, one to keep the current system but eliminate sludge imported from beyond the four municipalities), anaerobic digestion, thermal drying, alkaline stabilization, composting, solar aquatics and gasification.

If that all sounds like Greek, credit Gackstatter for explaining each one in English, and credit the well-informed residents for asking relevant questions.

Lynne Bonnett (pictured), chair of the New Haven Environmental Justice Network, was concerned about toxic emissions under the current operation, especially mercury, and if any of the alternatives would be an improvement.

Chris Ozyck asked about the production of carbon dioxide, the biggest contributor to global warming. “How do these technologies stack up towards carbon,” he wanted to know, “and not putting out so much carbon or volatile organic compounds or anything that creates the greenhouse effect? And does that play into this model that your decision making process is about?”

Cordelie Benoit asked about transportation options for moving the sludge “” in whatever form after it’s processed “” out of the facility.

To most of these questions, Gackstatter had to plead ignorance and say that other members of his team would be at the next meeting to respond to them.

And DiGangi tried to reassure them that their concerns were being heard. “We’re not here to present alternatives and to push one technology over another,” he said. “The intent of this meeting is to take everyone’s comments and roll it into the process, and to make sure the model they [CH2M] have created addresses these issues.”

But nobody from WPCA or CH2M was recording the meeting or taking notes until Benoit asked why not late in the meeting.

“By the time of the next meeting, Feb. 27,” Benoit said afterward, “CH2M will have already made their recommendations, with the final decision to be made by the WPCA board,” so she questioned how much the public’s input could or would be considered.

DiGangi said CH2M will present a draft report to the WPCA board on February 13; the public will be able to respond at another meeting on Feb. 27; then the team will make a final recommendation to the board early in March. “The report is not binding on anyone,” he added. “CH2M is just doing technical analysis. In the end it’s a complete board prerogative” to decide what new processes, if any, should be put in place.

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Comments

Posted by: christine | January 18, 2007 1:07 AM

Does CH2M have any affiliation with CDM? Where are they based and who owns the company? Curious because DiGangi worked for the MDC in Hartford that contracted with CDM for its $1 billion sewage separation project. Just wondering if there's any affiliation.

Posted by: JUljens | January 18, 2007 5:09 AM

Concerning the article on Sewer Sludge is bad for us. It mentions in the article that other towns are having their sewer sludge processed in New Haven. Is Branford one of those towns? I can not believe how short sighted the Federal EPA, and State DEP are in imposing legal mandates to upgrade sewer facilities (or water treatment plants) case in point Branford bonded and spent 30million plus and another 7 to 8 million plug leaks in the pipes that are buried in the streets that leak. (I beleive a negoiated settlement with the EPA was several hundred thousand dollars)Yet the by product from these plants produces an environment nightmare that no one thought to address from the beginning. What are these enivronmental anaylsts, firms and agencies doing with the funds they are recieving from the good old tax payer?

John Uljens

Posted by: John Miller | January 19, 2007 9:40 AM

Christine:
I'm a CH2M HILL employee but I'm not working on this project and have no knowledge of it at all. However, I wanted to answer your questions about our company. I'll include our company description below and please go to our website for more information.

Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, employee-owned CH2M HILL is a global leader in engineering, construction, and operations for public and private clients. With more than $3.8 billion in revenue, CH2M HILL is an industry-leading program management, construction management for fee, and design firm, as ranked by Engineering-News Record (2006). The firm's work is concentrated in the areas of transportation, water, energy, environment, communications, construction, and industrial facilities. Recognized in 2006 as one of FORTUNE magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" and a "Most Admired Company," CH2M HILL has more than 18,000 employees in regional offices worldwide.

Posted by: lynne bonnett | January 22, 2007 10:48 PM

New Haven's East Shore plant incinerates sludge from all over the state - it's brought in by truck or barge. 40 % of it comes from outside our region; much of it comes from Bridgeport, Norwalk,New London, Groton, and yes some of it comes from Branford. There are only 7 incinerators in the entire state. New Haven's incinerator was built in the 1990s and purposely built to be 40 % larger than what our region needed so that we would be able to take sludge from communities that do not have incinerators. I don't know who made the decision; I lived here at that time and don't remember anyone informing us that this was going on. The Department of Environmental Protection issued the permit; did they know what was being planned for our community? The East Shore Incinerator is the main emitter of mercury vapor in our city far surpassing any other entity. It also emits dioxin and other toxins. Bringing in biosolids from other communities just exacerbates our already high level of pollution and concentrates them in the vicinity of the incinerator- in this case New Haven, East Haven and the Harbor. Our group, the New Haven Environmental Justice Network, worked very hard to raise sludge incineration to a level of public discussion through our negotiation with the city of New Haven during the formation of the new regional board; we need to find other ways of dealing with sludge that don't result in our community being overburdened and that does not release chemical toxins into our air through incineration. We look forward to CH2M's report as a good beginning in the process of finding alternatives to sludge incineration in New Haven.

Posted by: Fred Cervin | January 26, 2007 3:56 PM

My impression after our meeting with the sewer authority is that we have a huge waste disposal problem with no obvious solution. If sewer sludge ought not be used as fertilizer due to the likelihood of toxins building up in the soil over time, and if incineration leads to serious pollution of the air, what do we do? The first principle ought to be, don't spread it around. The water-carried sewage system already violates this. We are adding toxic industrial chemicals to a valuable and essentially benign material. Keeping our waste at home is the only real solution, but it is hopelessly utopian at present.
Has anyone advocated public subsidy for universal installation of compost toilets?

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Neighbors: Sewage Sludge Is Bad For Us

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