From Attorney Ed Hallman - representating McElmurray and Boyceland dairies which suffered
extensive dairy cow illnesses and deaths and land contamination as a result of the land
spreading of Augusta, Georgia sewage sludge: " [
http://www.augustachronicle.com/stories/062403/lat_sludge.shtml
JURY: AUGUSTA RESPONSIBLE FOR CATTLE DEATHS Web posted Tuesday, June 24,
2003 By Robert Pavey | Staff Writer
Jurors concluded today that the city of Augusta's sewage sludge was responsible for cattle
deaths and property damage at a Burke County dairy farm. But the victory for Boyceland Dairy
and members of the Boyce family was bittersweet: jurors awarded the family only $550,000 - a
mere fraction of the $12.5 million in damages sought by the plaintiffs. "We won the case, but
lost the farm," said a tearful Carolyn Boyce, who hugged her husband, Bill Boyce, and other
family members after the verdict was delivered shortly before noon.]
" Everyone -
There needs to be an extensive list of items to be addressed in the [California, San Bernardino,
Newberry Springs, Nursery Products) EIS.
For example, there should be a requirement of a list of all industries that contribute to the
waste stream and the COMPLETE list of the content of all constituents that are included in
each of the industries' effluent that goes into the sewage stream that ends up in the sewage
sludge that, in turn, by necessity will be part of the end compost product. In addition, as a
cross check, each industry should be required to provide copies of ALL "Material Safety Data
Sheets" of all constituents used by that industry and all end products created by that industry.
Finally, there should be a requirement for the taking of many, non noticed samples of the
sewage sludge used for the compost products, with an exhaustive analytical testing of each
sample to include EPA priority pollutants and the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure
analyses. A proposed bill that we prepared for the California legislature will be a good go by.
Just remember that the famous approach to protecting sewage sludge is to limit the types of
analyses that are conducted, thereby intentionally avoiding analyses that will should the
materials that are actually in the sludge.
In the Augusta, Ga. cases, we have found extremely high levels of chlordane, which is
outlawed for land application and virtually any purpose, cadmium, mercury and chromium,
among others. Augusta provided a wonderful opportunity for the EPA and the state
environmental agency to come down hard on a very bad actor. The fact that they did not do
so shows how corrupt the sludge industry and the agencies are on the subject. The theory of
"we've got to put it somewhere" is about as far as the thought process goes. Such an attitude
is in itself the primary reason not to allow this stuff to be land applied anywhere. It is designed
to debunk virtually every applicable environmental law by a smoke and mirrors approach
when , simply put, this is an attempted ploy to legalize the illegal activity of putting hazardous
wastes on agricultural lands.
VERY IMPORTANT NEWS!!!!!
Please be advised that we received notice today of an extremely important decision for those
of us against the ghastly threat of sewage sludge. We received an order from the Georgia
Court of Appeals. After we won one of the sludge cases in Augusta, Ga., the court threw the
other one out by granting a motion for summary judgment in favor of the City of Augusta. We
appealed the case to the Georgia Court of Appeals which, on July 11, reversed the lower court
and reinstituted our claims for negligence, fraud, nuisance, trespass, products liability and
strict liability. We are now authorized to go back to the lower court and have a jury trial on
these issues. Al Wagner and others will remember that Rufus Chaney, one of the sludge
industries' paid guns, told a TV audience in Bakersfield, Calif. that all of the Augusta cases
had been thrown out of court. The sludge slugs have no problem lying like dogs simply to
attempt to make the greatest untruths true by simply making the same untrue statements over
and over again. Please remember that these comments are coming from an environmental
attorney who represents industries and companies regarding environmental compliance.
The sludge program for land application is per se insane and will continue to have long range
horrible results. I am available to discuss. Ed Hallman 404-588-2525 (Direct).