[USCC] Compost Digest Vol 29, #1, relative to discussion between Al Rubin, Rufus Chaney and Edo McGowan.

[Edo McGowan]

To: List-serve Compost at composter.com

Fm: Edo McGowan

Re: Pass-through of important information. Compost Digest Vol 29, #1, relative to discussion between Al Rubin, Rufus Chaney and Edo McGowan.

Caroline Snyder, whose privilege to post appears to have been revoked, brought this to my attention. It seems critical to the current thought sequence; thus I request that it be posted.


 
 


Former EPA scientist, Dr. Al Rubin and Dr. Rufus Chaney, a soil 
scientist with the US Department of Agriculture,  were the primary 
authors of the 503 sludge rule. Here are excerpts from a recent peer 
reviewed paper published in the International Journal of Occupational 
and Environmental Health describing their role in trying to silence 
scientists who did not agree with their theories:

"EPA's Office of Research and Development  scientific peer review 
severely criticized the 503 rule.  EPA's Office of Water [where Rubin 
worked] claimed that numerous studies demonstrated that heavy metals, 
organic chemicals, and pathogens in processed sludge posed no 
significant risk to human health or the environment.  Rubin, however, 
could provide only a few laboratory studies and no relevant field 
studies. In 2000, a former EPA research director stated under oath: 'We 
did not think the rule passed scientific muster.  If the 503 rule were 
put to the test today, it would miserably fail EPA's own scientific peer 
review process.'"

" Problems with the rule developed almost immediately after its 
promulgation.  In 1994 and 1995 three deaths occurred that were linked 
to land-applied sludge.  In response to mounting public concerns, those 
at EPA responsible for land-application policies allied themselves more 
closely with sludge management companies who knew how to deal with 
public opposition."

When the Cornell Waste Management Institute released a paper criticizing 
the 503 rule, Dr. Rubin and Dr. Chaney corresponded repeatedly with  New 
York State regulators, EPA, and the US Department of Agriculture, 
because "the publication of the Cornell paper will have a negative 
impact on the use of biosolids."  Subsequently a group of 
sludge-friendly scientists were paid to attack the paper."

After one of EPA's internationally known senior research scientists, 
David Lewis,  " began investigating reported cases of illnesses and 
death among sludge-exposed individuals . . .  EPA managers in Washington 
DC and at Research Triangel Park NC, responded by ending all of his 
research funding and instructed his local supervisors  in Georgia not to 
let him collaborate with other EPA scientists or let him have access to 
agency resources." [ page 417-418]

The IJOEH paper is posted on www.sludgefacts.org