By Brian Mittge The Chronicle
Saying the stench burns their eyes and smells like rotting dead animals, two dozen local residents unleashed a load of complaints Thursday night at a public hearing in Chehalis about local use of biosolids, known by critics as treated sewage sludge. The state was asking for comment on a permit application by Cinebar farmer Bob Thode to use the semisolid remains of treated municipal wastewater as farm fertilizer on 13 local fields.
Thode, president of Fire Mountain Farms, has used biosolids on local fields for 15 years. Four years ago, he asked for a state permit; only now is the complex application coming up for public comment.
He continued using biosolids on local fields in the meantime under already-existing state rules. Critics have been vocal with concerns about the smell, possible health risks and lack of money for enforcement.
Adna dairy farmer Tony Schilter is no stranger to the aroma of manure generated on his Bunker Creek farm, but he said the biosolids Thode's company began spreading this year on a field across the road are so pungent his eyes water and he can't sleep.
''I resent the fact that I have to be in compliance so I can milk cows and somebody else does not have to be,'' Schilter told regulators from the Washington Department of Ecology in the Chehalis public hearing, saying the problem is not biosolids, but is Thode's inability to closely supervise all of his treatment sites.
Schilter also worries that if floodwaters carry biosolid residue onto his fields this winter, he won't be able to sell his milk.
Other neighbors expressed concern about dust being thrown up when Thode applies the biosolids, and said hay harvested from biosolid-fertilized fields should be labeled as such when sold.
Bob Elliott, executive director of the Southwest Clean Air Agency in Vancouver, Wash., spoke at the meeting about neighbors' concerns about odors. He said by law, odors cannot ''unreasonably'' interfere with neighbors' use and enjoyment of their property.
Elliott urged Thode to consider wind direction when spreading or breaking into crusted-over piles, and to refrain from spreading 48 hours before holidays.
Thode briefly answered a few questions at the meeting, but offered no public comment beyond his thick permit application, a three-ring binder decorated with a yellow scarecrow on the cover.
Before the meeting, he spoke with a reporter for The Chronicle on a walk-through tour of one of his most controversial sites, the Newaukum Prairie site on Highway 508 east of Interstate 5.
Biosolids ''is an emotional issue,'' he said, one that has more to do with smell than any real health risks.
He brings in his biosolids from facilities around Western Washington, but none from Lewis County. Biosolids aren't really ''people poop,'' he said. They are mainly the dead bodies of bacteria that have eaten the sewage in a highly regulated treatment plants, and have fallen to the bottom of the tank.
''I think if we could get rid of the odor, there'd be no problem,'' he said.
Applying biosolids is a responsible way to get rid of treated municipal waste and build up the soil, he said. In the Toutle River area, he has been contracted to bring life to still-dead piles of ash dredged from the river after the Mount St. Helens eruption. By mixing biosolids with the ash, he hopes to create a mixture that will grow trees.
According to the permit, he wouldn't be able to apply biosolids after four straight days with at least a fourth of an inch of rain. He couldn't start using them again until the water table was three feet below the surface of the soil.
Neighbors worried that Thode would be able to apply the semi-liquid black material year-round in Lewis County, and that there wouldn't be proper enforcement of state rules.
In addition to state laws on biosolids, which were already in effect, the proposed state permit approval would attach other regulations. Thode said he's already been complying with some of the rules.
- He would only be able to apply ''class B'' biosolids, which have lower levels of pathogens and of nine metals: zinc, copper, lead, nickel, cadmium, chromium, arsenic, mercury, and selenium.
- Biosolids that have a higher rate of attraction for flies and pests would have to be injected or tilled directly into the soil.
- Trucks entering and leaving the 13 approved sites onto public roads would have to be washed ''to assure that a nuisance or unsafe conditions are not created at the site,'' according to a draft letter approving Thode's application.
- Biosolids could be applied to a field only on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. - All trucks entering must sign a log of where their biosolids came from and where they are being placed on the property. - Soil, water and groundwater will be monitored by an independent third party.
- Thode must pay for an independent third party to construct new testing wells near his Newaukum Prairie and Cinebar holding lagoons within 60 days of receiving his permit. This will make three wells for each lagoon.
Newaukum Prairie neighbor Fred Wildhaber objected, saying Thode could have the wells placed in areas that wouldn't detect contamination. Thode applied to be covered under the state's general biosolid permit in October of 1998. ''That doesn't make us look real speedy, but honestly, we've been working on it,'' said Ethelwyn Hoffman, biosolids coordinator for Southwest Washington.
It's a large permit, she later told The Chronicle. The state needed more information, Lewis County took partial jurisdiction back from the state, and other factors complicated the process, she said.
She admitted her time was stretched. In addition to considering Thode's application, she looks at biosolid generation permits for 130 wastewater treatment plants over many counties.
''It's not just something you can crank out,'' she said.
Citizens at the meeting had a similar concern, that the state and county wouldn't have the resources to keep an eye on Thode's operations.
''The Department of Ecology is putting a lot of faith on someone who is doing this for profit to follow the rules, to almost self-police,'' Adna-area resident Michelle Kiess said to a reporter after the meeting. Copies of the permit are available at the Chehalis Timberland Library. Public comments will be accepted until Oct. 11. Contact Hoffman at the Washington State Department of Ecology, Southwest Regional Office, at P.O. Box 47775, Olympia, Wash., 98504-47775, or by telephoning 407-6393 or e-mailing whof461@ecy.wa.gov.
--- Brian Mittge covers local government for The Chronicle. He may be reached by e-mail at bmittge@chronline.com, or by telephoning 807-8237.
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