| PAGE FIVE Sovereign Immunity Sovereign Immunity has been granted to federal agency managers to rewrite environmental laws by using pollution disposal guidelines, which are jokingly referred to as federal regulations. EPA managers have had so much fun doing this that the managers even wrote a sludge use and disposal regulation based on exclusions in environmental laws. Many states have rewritten their solid waste laws to pass this immunity on to municipalities and the disposal companies who dispose of sludge/biosolids as a toxic contaminated fertilizer/soil amendment. In effect, EPA managers have been given permission, and authorized the states, to violate the intent, as well as the word, of the environmental laws regardless of the consequences to public health and the environment -- no matter how many people have to die for a cheap method of sludge disposal. http://deadlydeceit.com/sovereign_immunity.html EPA Closing Libraries EPA has been damaged by the waste industry leaders acting as Administrators for so long and to such a degree that in 2005, it appears president Bush couldn't find anyone willing to accept the position. He had to appoint 25 year EPA veteran Stephen L. Johnson. Johnson knows were the bodies (scientific studies) are buried -- in the libraries -- now they are going to be closed so the public can not find out just how much damage waste industry leaders managing EPA have done to public health and the environment and EPA can not effectively prosecute those federal and state agencies who have violate the environmental laws. As the watchers state, "An intelligent individual, who is corrupt and claims to be highly religious, is very dangerous indeed, especially when they turn the spiritual rules upside down to harm the people" The same can be said for those corrupt religious individuals in government who claim to be highly scientific and yet, use faulty science and exclusions in the environmental laws, to poison our environment, contaminate our air, water, foodchain and deliberately put our health as risk. EPA's sewage sludge disposal program as a fertilizer/soil amendment is a perfect example of the environment rules being turned upside down. EPA has promoted the term biosolids, instead of sludge, with the assurance to the public that there are no toxic substances in it and there is no hazards associated with its use. http://deadlydeceit.com/Libraries.html Review of Los Angeles, et al., vs Kern County lawsuit -- sludge ban This case is to determine whether a Federal Court will attempt to force Kern County, against the will of the voters in a legal election, to accept agroterrorism from the same organization who, in 1988, documented the apparent lack of scientific data on chemicals (Los Angeles County) and disease causing organisms (Los Angeles County) in sewage sludge. The City of Los Angeles is asking a federal court to take away the right of the Kern County voters to protect their air, water, foodchain and health from exposure to chemicals and disease causing organisms in the CWA pollutant (sewage sludge), and RCRA solid waste (sewage sludge), illegally disposed of as a so called organic fertilizer on agricultural land (non-point source ) under exclusions in federal law. The case will hinge on whether EPA Office of Water has the authority to put public health at risk by creating a fraudulent hazardous waste disposal regulation (40 CFR 503) based on a policy and EPA lies to the public as well as lies told by its partners http://deadlydeceit.com/LA-Kern-lawsuit.html MICHIGAN REQUEST FOR APPROVAL FOR ITS PROGRAM OF DISCHARGES OF POLLUTANTS (sludge) FROM A POINT SOURCE -- TO A NON-POINT SOURCE (agricultural land) -- INTO THE WATERS OF THE UNITED STATES. In effect, a license for the "open dumping" of sludge -- an act prohibited by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Comment period open until September 18, 2006. http:deadlydeceit.com/Michigan.html GEORGIA SLUDGE PERMIT SCHEME As approved by National Governors Association (NGA) and EPA Office of Water -- Just when we were positive there was no conspiracy, documents turn up to indicate the governors are knee deep in sludge with the EPA. A permit can not be issued to dump sludge in water, but an unauthorized permit can be issued to dump sludge on farmland were it can runoff into waters of the United States. http://deadlydeceit.com/Georgia-permit-scheme.html Are sludge victims turning into a mob? Michigan's sludge/biosolids expert, Jim Johnson, contends a citizen trying to enlighten DEQ with the truth (about sludge disposed of as a fertilizer) is just someone stepping out of the mob to throw stones at him. http://deadlydeceit.com/Michigan-DEQ.html EPA OFFICE of Water used three tricks to fool scientists, legislators and the public: Documents show that four people in EPA’s Office of Water (OW) had the power to put public health and the environment at risk by authorizing the disposal of sewage sludge contaminated with extremely hazardous levels of chemicals and disease causing organisms as a fertilizer thereby creating very dangerous Superfund sites. Not only did they claim sludge used as a fertilizer was safe based on a fraudulent risk assessment, which was backed up by scientists from land grant colleges and Universities, they admitted the levels for 10 toxic metals and disease causing organisms in the part 503 sludge use and disposal regulation was not based on any risk assessment. In fact, the part 503 regulation itself was based on perceived exclusions in federal laws. The OW claims it has no responsibility to investigate health or environmental problems caused by this hazardous waste. For these reasons, EPA Office of Compliance of Enforcement will not get involved in the program. The scientific debate generated over part 503 by these gentlemen was a simple diversion tactic to focus attention away from the authorization to disposed of the extremely hazardous sludge as a land applied fertilizer under Appendix G, Table II, of the pretreatment regulation Part 403. These gentlemen used three tricks to fool the scientists, legislators and the public: 1) they implied that: the weight of a Kilogram and a liter was something other than 1,000 grams; a self-permitted 100,000 milligrams/kilogram of chromium land applied as a fertilizer for removals credits was very safe; versus 600 milligrams/kilogram of chromium allowed to be placed on a NPDES permitted part 503 surface disposal sludge site; versus a hazardous waste disposal level for chromium of 5 milligrams/liter; and, 2) Appendix G, Removal Credit Table II for chemicals not regulated under part 503 is labeled as giving the levels in milligrams whereas the levels for inorganic chemicals (metals) are given in grams (i.e., 1,000 times higher than what the chart indicates); and, 3) While the gentlemen claim the treatment processes to reduce fecal coli form levels to 1,000 cfu per gram (1,000,000 cfu per kilogram) destroys all disease causing organisms and makes sludge safe for direct human contact; EPA funded studies show the disease organisms mutate into more deadly forms as they pass through the treatment processes and many are viable, but non-cultureable by standard methods; and, the orgainisms are subject to explosive regrowth as well as becoming airborne. In spite of the fact, EPA Office of Water has always, and still does, admit it doesn’t have adequate data to determine safe levels of chemicals and disease causing organisms in sludge it continues to support the disposal of extremely hazardous levels of known chemicals in sludge as a fertilizer/soil amendment jokingly called biosolids.. Yet, these gentlemen had the power to forced all government agencies to sign on to this deadly policy. Municipal Wastewater Treatment managers, who issue removal credits for hazardous chemicals in sludge they disposed of as a fertilizer also know what hazardous chemical waste levels are. Many victims of this deadly policy have contacted people involved in trying to stop this fraud, yet, many victims who have purchased unlabeled sludge from commercial outlets have no idea they were even exposed to the hazardous material. DOCUMENTATION http://deadlydeceit.com/lead-story-documentation.html EPA HAS MISREPRESENTED THE FACTS: Combined Table of regulated (part 503) and unregulated (Part 403) Hazardous - Toxic Pollutant levels EPA allows in Biosolids for use as a fertilizer/soil amendment and surface disposal levels, as well as the hazardous waste levels. As example, EPA allows an unregulated level of Chromium at 100,000 ppm in Class A & B sludge/biosolids, while it allows only 600 ppm of Chromium in a Part 503 Surface Disposal sludge Site. The Hazardous waste level is 5 ppm. http://deadlydeceit.com/403-503-removal_credit_Table.html EPA's 1999 AMENDMENTS TO PART 503 AND 403 ALLOWING 100,000 ppm of CHROMIUM IN SLUDGE ARE COSTLY In 1993, "EPA concluded that adequate protection of public health and the environment did not require the adoption of standards designed to protect human health or the environment under exposure conditions that are unlikely and where effects were not significant [$100 million in costs] or widespread." (FR. 58, p. 9252)" Under Executive Order 12866, Regulatory Planning and Review it was not expected to have a "significant" effect of $100 million dollars on the State, local, or tribal government. EPA did not address the section: or adversely affect in a material way the economy, a sector of the economy, productivity, competition, jobs, the environment, public health or safety EPA did not address the fact that 503 does: Create a serious inconsistency between use of sludge/biosolids which can not be disposed of under the same regulation, as well as federal law which prohibit the practice. The amended regs; Raise novel legal or policy issues, by approving the use of 100,000 ppm of chromium in sludge /biosolids for use as a fertilizer (21.3 ppm?) or soil amendment in the pre-treatment rule 403, when it is not mentioned in part 503, and: the hazardous waste level for chromium is 5 ppm (five). http://deadlydeceit.com/Cost_regs.html JEKYLL AND HYDE SYNDROME In the most recent peer reviewed scientific study (Organic Chemicals in Sewage Sludges 2006) from Cornell, Ellen Harrison, et.al, looked at organic chemicals which may be found in sludge. This is the first scientific look at organics since 1989 when EPA acknowledged there were 21 of the chemicals in sludge which would cause cancer. What Harrison found was that EPA still has no idea of just how deadly the chemicals in sludge will be to homeowners, farmers and their neighbors where sludge is disposed of as a fertilizer. http://cwmi.css.cornell. edu/sludge/organicchemicals.pdf Harrison said:
compared to EPA risk-based soil screening limits (SSLs) where available. For 6 of the 15 classes of chemicals identified, there were no SSLs. For the 79 reported chemicals which had SSLs, the maximum reported concentration of 86% exceeded at least one SSL. Eighty-three percent of the 516 chemicals were not on the EPA established list of priority pollutants and 80 percent were not on the EPA’s list of target compounds. Thus analyses targeting these lists will detect only a small fraction of the organic chemicals in sludges. Analysis of the reported data shows that more data has been collected for certain chemical classes such as pesticides, PAHs and PCBs than for others that may pose greater risk such as nitrosamines. VIRGINIA’S JEKYLL (DEQ) AND HYDE (VDH) LAWS FOR SLUDGE In The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll creates a magic potion which transforms him into the killer Mr. Hyde. An unknown impurity (pollutant) is what makes the magic potion work. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) knows the known (and unknown) pollutants in sludge can kill you and the solid waste law is based on the 1991 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)/Clean Water Act (CWA) sludge disposal regulation part 258. This is the “minimum national criteria (to) ensure the protection of human health and the environment” and defines sludge from any pollution control treatment plant as a solid waste. Virginia Department of Health’s (VDH) implied lack of knowledge about environmental law as well as 800 hazardous substances and 126 toxic priority pollutants is the magic which transforms sludge into biosolids. The VDH Biosolids law refers to nine metals (hazardous substances - toxic pollutants) as trace elements (five are inhalation carcinogens). Even EPA, who based the part 503 sludge policy on exclusions in federal law, listed the nine metals as pollutants in part 503, and noted in part 503.9(t) that either direct exposure or indirect exposure to the pollutants through the air, water or food chain could cause death, disease, cancer or worse. Even though part 503.4 states that part 258 is the legal sludge disposal regulation meeting minimum RCRA/CWA human health and environment requirements, VDH is issuing permits for disposal where you could be exposed to the pollutants through the air, water and food chain. However, according to EPA’s senior sludge scientist, Robert Bastian, (12/2005), Virginia has never received EPA approval to issue disposal permits for beneficial biosolids use. www.deadlydeceit.com/Virginia_jeckyll_hyde_laws.html |