« Environment - St. Joseph and Elkhart counties taken off EPA list | Main | Ind. Courts - Supreme Court on campus »
Thursday, April 07, 2005
Environment - Hopkins sewage proposal dropped
"Hopkins sewage proposal dropped: Firm's plan to bury sludge met with public resistance" is the headline to a story today in the Louisville Courier Journal , a follow-up to a LCJ story from March 19th that was summarized in this ILB entry. Some quotes from today's story:
Blaming "environmental hysteria in the media," the company that wanted to truck 500 tons a day of Nashville's sewage sludge to Hopkins County in Western Kentucky has withdrawn its proposal for the project.In an April 5 letter to Kentucky regulators made public yesterday, BioReclamation LLC manager Charles W. Martin said the company feared that the Kentucky Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet was going to "proactively scrutinize" the proposal in ways that exceed state requirements. * * *
Many had expressed concern about the large volume of sludge headed for Hopkins County, and feared that its treatment in the unlined trenches would taint groundwater, produce strong odors and attract swarms of flies.
"I don't think there's anyone in the state of Kentucky who would have wanted this coming to their homes," said Patricia Hawkins, Hopkins County judge-executive. "You can probably feel my smile through the telephone. I'm delighted with this news."* * *
Louisville environmental attorney Tom FitzGerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council, had challenged the permit application in two letters to the state and has been helping Hopkins County draft its ordinance.
"To suggest the outcry was preordained by a hysterical public is inaccurate," he said yesterday. "Whenever you propose to bring 500 tons a day of active sewage sludge into a community with no public hearing, no notice to local government and no opportunity for local input, what do you expect?"
Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 7, 2005 10:33 AM
Posted to Environment