Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 28, 1993 TAG: 9304280367
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Supervisors and the Planning Commission held a joint public hearing on a request for a permit by Childress Farms Inc. to spread sludge from Christiansburg's sewage treatment plant at seven sites in the county.
County zoning laws require a special-use permit for sludge applications. A permit also is required by state Department of Environmental Quality (formerly the state Water Control Board).
Following the hearing, the Planning Commission voted to recommend that supervisors approve the permit on the condition that buffer zones from residences and public and private water supplies be increased from 100 feet to 500 feet. The board will vote on the permit at its May 10 meeting.
Residents near the proposed sites objected to the odor that spreading the sludge would cause and questioned whether the sludge posed any threat to their water supplies.
There's bound to be something wrong with the sludge or the state wouldn't regulate how it's spread, said W.H. Gibson, who lives near one of the Childress farms.
Who inspects the spreading of the watery sewer plant residue? asked Ron Brown, who lives near a Childress farm on Smith Creek Road. "The guy driving the truck, he's the one that needs to be watched."
Dave Griffiths, an engineer with Olver Inc. of Blacksburg, said that the state Environmental Quality Department and the Health Department regulate sludge spreading.
Rules require that buffer zones be maintained during spreading from roads, streams and rock outcroppings. To prevent runoff into streams, regulations also forbid spreading sludge on steep slopes or during rainy periods or when the ground is frozen.
Restrictions are placed on how soon animals can be grazed on land after sludge is applied and when forage and food crops can be harvested. Crops for human consumption cannot be raised until 18 months after a sludge application.
Griffiths said sludge is analyzed four times a year to make sure it doesn't contain toxic, heavy metals.
Dave Sligh, a state Environmental Quality Department senior environmental engineer, said heavy metals have not been a problem in Western Virginia sewage sludge. The state inspects sludge applications once a year, and more often when problems occur; rules also require farmers to report monthly what has been put down, Sligh said.
Childress Farms has been using sludge to fertilize crop and pasture fields for 10 years and has held two five-year permits for spreading it.
The amount of the sludge that can be applied to the land is limited to the equivalent of five dry tons per acre each five years. The amount of sludge needed depends on its nutrient content and the type of soil to which it is applied.
Because sludge is 96 percent water, it takes several applications over a period of days to get enough nutrients into the fields.
Floyd Childress Jr. said he's been pleased with the sludge, and says it has very little smell. He was supported in that by County Supervisor Joe Stewart of Shawsville, himself a farmer who has used sludge. It smells "like musty, rotten hay," Stewart said.
The odors his neighbors have objected to, Childress said, probably were those of liquid animal waste he also spreads on his fields.
In other business Monday night, supervisors:
Approved purchase of 20 acres of land from Whitethorne Plantations Inc. for $500,000. The land, next to the midcounty landfill, will be used for a recycling center and as a soil source to cover landfill garbage. Supervisors previously had agreed to condemn the land but a settlement was reached with Whitethorne instead.
Approved the purchase of 14 Glock .40-caliber semi-automatic pistols by the Sheriff's Office. Money confiscated in a drug case will pay for the guns.
Heard objections during a public hearing to the rezoning of land on Heywood Lane near Merrimac Road for a junkyard. The Planning Commission later voted to recommend approval of the rezoning on the condition that junkyard owner, William H. Quarterman, maintain fences and trees to screen it from view and to build an approved restroom on the site.
Heard more objections from Ironto-area residents to the location of a new county landfill between Bradshaw and Flatwoods roads. One objection to the landfill is the additional truck traffic it would bring to a section of Virginia 603 known as "the bluff," where three accidents involving school buses already have occurred.
Mary Hamlin introduced her daughter Samantha, a Elliston-Lafayette Elementary second-grader, and Samantha's friend Ashley Hartless to the supervisors. "We hold you responsible for these young citizens, and their lives and their futures," Hamlin said.
by CNB