[USCC] Public comment period for sludge facility in Hinkley California ends Thursday

[McNelly, Patrick]

Public comment period for sludge facility ends Thursday

By AARON AUPPERLEE Staff Writer

June 13, 2007 - 7:14AM


HINKLEY - Hinkley residents have long felt ignored by the county
government in San Bernardino. 

Bus loads of concerned citizens trekked Down the Hill to a Board of
Supervisors meeting in February to voice opposition to a proposed
sludge-composting facility just outside of Hinkley. When the board
approved the facility's conditional-use permit, many asked if the
supervisors listened. 

Now another county agency is asking for feedback. The San Bernardino
County Environmental Health Division asked Hinkley residents to submit
concerns about the Nursery Products plant before it drafts a solid waste
facility permit, said Jane Brinkerhoff, the supervising environmental
health specialist at the Environmental Health Division. 

"We wanted to make sure that the community where this facility is going
is involved," Brinkerhoff said. "They're (comments) starting to come
in." 

The permit, required in the state of California for any facility dealing
with waste, could add further conditions to the operation of the
facility. 

Brinkerhoff approached Norman Diaz, a local Hinkley activist against
Nursery Products, a few weeks ago and began soliciting comments from the
community. She said she's received seven or eight letters to date. The
comment period closes on Thursday. 

"The major concern seems to be airborne contaminants," Brinkerhoff said.
"We'll probably be requiring them to take logs of the wind speed
whenever they're getting ready to turn the windrows." 

The conditions will not stop the facility from coming to Hinkley but
could restrict the operation to protect the health of the residents,
said Ingrid Brostrom from the Center for Race, Poverty and the
Environment. Brostrom's group is part of the legal team representing
Hinkley in their lawsuit against the county. The suit seeks to block the
facility. 

"Ideally, they would condition it on having an enclosure," she said,
"but whatever we can do at this point to make the facility safer for the
people of Hinkley." 

Brostrom submitted a letter to the Environmental Health Division on
Tuesday outlining possible restrictions on the facility to protect air
quality, water quality and endangered species and to mitigate traffic.
She also asked that Nursery Products provided under-road access for
endangered species and protect the desert tortoise by building fences,
not turning compost during migration season and forbidding employees to
handle the tortoise. 

Brinkerhoff said her staff is comparing the comments to the
environmental-impact report and the facilities operation plan to make
sure the concerns are addressed in the plan. The comments will go to
California Integrated Waste Management Board before its August meeting,
where the solid waste permit will be voted on. Chris Seney, director of
operations for Nursery Products, said the company went through a similar
permitting process when they opened their facility in Adelanto. 

"You got to do that if you're going to do anything with waste," he said.
"Every wastehandling and recycling facility has to do this permitting
process." 

He said he has not been contacted to submit comments at this point and
expects the permit to mirror the environmental-impact report. Once the
facility opens, Seney said he expects the Environmental Health Division
to inspect the facility, as it did at the Adelanto facility. He said
inspectors came 42 times to Adelanto and left without complaint.