From New York City to Western Texas: dumping the sludge.

Center for Land Use Interpretation: Sierra Blanca Sludge Ranch –

Between 1992 and 2001, as many as 45 train cars per day bought sewage sludge from New York City to this 129,000 acre West Texas property, where it is spread out on the ground like peanut butter. The waste site is a former resort called the Mile High Ranch, and is owned by a Long Island New York company, Merco Joint Venture. The contract with New York City was terminated in June of 2001, and the sludge ranch, possibly the largest in the World, is now idle.

[Link]

Toxic Texas casts a critical eye on the history of sludge dumping –

This week the Texas Toxic Tour takes us to Sierra Blanca Texas, home to the nation’s largest sewage sludge dump. The story examines how Sierra Blanca, a small town on the U.S./Mexico border, became the resting place for New York City’s sewage.

…. Until Congress banned ocean dumping of sewage sludge in 1988, New York City dumped millions of tons of its sewage into the ocean. New York sludge was too contaminated with toxic pollutants to be used and too expensive to be buried safely in a landfill. In 1992, New York City awarded Merco Joint Venture; an Oklahoma-based company tied to New York organized crime (”Flood of Money Wins an Uneasy Home in Texas for New York City Waste”, Allen R. Myerson, The New York Times, 7/17/95 and “Stink Over Sludge”, Kevin Flynn and Michael Moss, New York Newsday, 8/2/94.), a six-year contract to dispose of nearly a fifth of the Big Apples’ sewage sludge.

In 1992, after dumping began, the people of Sierra Blanca began to complain of the odor. “The chemical odors coming off the application area are not just a nuisance and a trespass, they’re a health hazard - hydrogen sulfide and ammonia vapors mixed with a fecal smell are indescribable - except to say that it smells like death … We noticed strange rashes and blisters in the mouth, more flu, more colds, more allergies, and asthma since they came. We’ve seen a lot more sickness - especially with the kids,” says Bill Addington, a local resident.

… In 1997, Merco applied to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) for a renewal of their sludge permit for an additional five years. The company also requested an amendment to triple the amount of sewage sprayed per acre. To support their efforts, Merco hired Gov. Bush’s former legislative director, Cliff Johnson, to lobby the Bush appointed commissioners (1997 Commissioners -Barry McBee, Ralph Marquez, John Baker) at the state regulatory agency.

Bill Addington and Millie Dodge of Sierra Blanca used this opportunity to file a motion for reconsideration with the TNRCC. In response, the TNRCC Executive Director Dan Pearson filed a brief arguing for the motion for reconsideration to be denied. Pearson, hired by the Bush-appointed TNRCC Commissioners, claimed that the Merco operation wasn’t a threat to health or the environment …. The Bush-appointed Commissioners denied the motion, saying properly treated sewage sludge posed no threat, and Merco began dumping up to 400 tons a day.

In 1999, Merco admitted that it had spread sludge from New York that had not been properly treated to reduce pathogens - a state and federal requirement. (12) Merco had previously been caught spreading untreated sludge and fined $12,800 in 1994, a sum unlikely to deter illegal dumping on a contract valued at $168 million dollars over five years.

…. Addington summed up the community feeling saying, “Sierra Blanca is in desperate need for a community health survey, a county survey, by an independent group …we feel like guinea pigs”(14)

[Toxic Texas: Link]
[Via Fark]

PR Watch reports: Merco’s SLAPP Suit Fails in Texas –

1997: An appeals court has overthrown a 1996 libel verdict won by a New York company that hauls sewage sludge against filmmaker Michael Moore’s TV Nation television program and EPA whistleblower Hugh Kaufman.

On August 2, 1994, TV Nation aired a segment titled “Sludge Train,” which followed a load of sludge from a sewage plant in New York as it was hauled by train to Sierra Blanca, Texas, where it was applied as fertilizer on ranchland owned by Merco Joint Venture, the company hired to dispose of the sludge.

It featured footage of Sierra Blanca residents who complained about odors from the sludge operation, and interviewed EPA whistleblower Hugh Kaufman, who described the ranch as “an illegal haul and dump operation” and said “the people of Texas are being poisoned.”

Merco retaliated with a libel lawsuit against Kaufman, TV Nation and its parent company, TriStar Television. After a year of litigation, a Texas jury awarded actual damages in the paltry amount of $2, plus $5 million in punitive damages.

Upon appeal, however, the circuit judges found that Merco had failed to prove its case. “…. Merco presented no proof that TriStar and Kaufman knew, or should have known, that any part of the ‘Sludge Train’ broadcast was false. Indeed, Merco failed to show any part of the broadcast actually was false.”

“TriStar and Kaufman are not liable for defamation because they refused to corroborate the Merco party line,” the judges concluded. “Defamation law should not be used as a threat to force individuals to muzzle their truthful, reasonable opinions and beliefs. To endorse Merco’s version of defamation law would be to disregard . . . constitutional protections.”

[PR Watch: Link]

National Sludge Alliance: Sludge Magic –

“The question is, why would New York City pay $800.00 per ton to ship sludge to the western states when other municipalities are paying less than $30.00 a ton for disposal?”

[National Sludge Alliance: Link]

Environmental News Service reports –

NEW YORK CITY STOPS SHIPMENTS OF SEWAGE TO TEXAS DUMP

SIERRA BLANCA, Texas, June 26, 2001 (ENS) - The largest sewage sludge dump on Earth, the 81,000 acre municipal industrial dump at Sierra Blanca, will no longer be accepting toxic sewage from New York City.

The New York Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP) has canceled its 15 year, $500 million contract with MERCO NYC, which runs the Sierra Blanca dump in the high desert of Texas. MERCO was in its third year of the contract, which was renewed in 1998.

MERCO earned $168 million from the NYC DEP by dumping New York City sewage at Sierra Blanca between 1992 and 1998.

Ten dry tons of sludge cake were spread on each acre of the dump each year. A minimum of 250 tons per day and a maximum of 400 tons a day were dumped over the surface of the registered 81,000 acre land application area, under the guise of fertilizing the desert land.

The sewage sludge contained several contaminants, including lead, PCBs, dioxin, pesticides and other pollutants. New York City sewage is not allowed to be spread or even landfilled in New York State, because the material fails state standards for copper and lead at many of the NYC treatment plants.

[Environmental News Service: Link]

Michael Scally observes, in a footnote to an otherwise unrelated article –

Opponents of the proposed contract award to Merco Joint Venture, the sludge contractor, noted the speed with which the contract proposal was approved by the Texas Water Commission after Merco made a $1.5 million contribution to Texas Tech University to study the “benefits” of sludge sewage disposal, approval it won without an environmental impact study or serious opportunity for public process or debate. Merco Joint Venture was subsequently tied to organized crime elements. See, Allen R. Myerson, Flood of Money Wins an Uneasy Home in Texas for New York City Waste, The N. Y Times, (July 17, 1995) at B02.

[Link]

See also Sierra Blanca: Radioactive Waste.