Sludge Strife: Some Fort Bend County residents question dumping practices

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition

Guy resident Keith Massey has property near the sludge dumping site. He has documented information on aborted calves and the health challenges faced by his newborn grandchild - all of which he feels are linked to the sludge. He is also concerned about hay and beef produced on the land. -Staff photo by Taylor

September 12, 2002 -- Some Fort Bend County residents are wondering if the free fertilizer, road and pasture maintenance, and hay production is worth the price the neighbors are paying.

According to Keith Massey of Guy, it's not.

In return for the "benefits," some residents feel the dumping of sludge is a great "cost" to their health and quality of life.

While sludge dumping in the area has been going on for about 16 years, the past five years have called the neighbors to arms, and the fight is on.

"We have sludge from different places. Synagro, Inc. (along with its subsidiary CDR, a waste disposal company) has 145 places that they can haul from. Only 15 are in our county," said Massey who lives near one of the sludge-dumping sites.

The majority of the Class B sludge is being trucked into Fort Bend County from Harris County, and Massey can't figure out why. If the citizens of Harris County don't want the Class B sludge, why should the citizens of the neighboring county accept it?

While almost everything that goes down the drain or is flushed down a commode can be present in sewage sludge, there are also biosolid wastes from hospitals, mortuaries, clinics and camera shops ... all of which can produce different kinds of carcinogenic materials and diseases, according to Massey.

Class B sludge seems to be the bottom of the barrel. Once the sewage reaches the wastewater treatment plants, the water, with toxins removed, is treated and returned to waterways, according to an article by Megan Barnett in the U.S. News and World Report, August 2002 edition.

The "biosolids" left from the sewage can then be treated to a "greater or lesser" degree, and companies such as Synagro have Class B or Class A sludge. The Class A sludge can be sterilized, but the Class B seems to have the least amount of restrictions before being dumped on land as fertilizer.

In Fort Bend County, the matter is raising quite a stink. "They (Synagro-CDR) bring it out here (Yelderman property) and dump it on the ground. They put it in what they call a 'staging area,' which they can keep for seven days. They just got a new thing, which is called a storage area, and they can keep it for 30 days, and if they need to, 60 days, and if they need to, 90 days. It's unlimited, as far as we're concerned," said Massey.

According to Massey, he and 15 to 20 families living on properties within a mile of the sludge disposal say if it smells badly after seven days, the company is supposed to "put it under" (turn the soil), but he said it still stinks, even if left in the storage area for 30 days.

Massey said winter is the worse time for his family and property when there is usually more rain to cause more water standing in the pastures with the sludge.

"When it runs off, it runs through our pasture and my brother-in-law's pasture," he added. "They're (Synagro-CDR) supposed to cut it under every day, but a pasture ... ranchers don't want it cut under, because if you cut it under, then it's messed up ...."

The property being used for the sludge disposal is owned by the Yelderman Estate, according to Massey. None of the owners live near the sludge, but make a special effort to protect their properties in the area.

Massey said approximately 8 to 10 tons of fertilizer (sludge) per acre are used, and the landowners (Yelderman) are supposed to wait 30 days to run their cattle on the pasture, but he said that most of the areas within the Estate's 1,061 acres are protected by electric fences that the cattle can easily step or jump over.

Landowners whose property connects to the sludge pastures have five-wire fences to keep their own cattle in their pastures, and Massey believes that somewhere down the road, cattle which are grazed on sludge-filled pastures should have ear tags and tattoos in order to protect consumers.

"I feel like if it's detrimental to people around it, which we can all vouch for, it should be detrimental to cattle as well. I feel like they should be ear-tagged and tattooed in their ears, so that this carcass, when it's sold and goes on to the market to make hamburger out of, then people will know where it came from.

"I'm concerned about contaminated meat for people to have to eat. If it's (beef) been raised around sludge or human waste, then it's bound to have picked up something in it," said Massey.

According to Massey, in an audit report on March 20, 2000, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) "cannot assure the public that current land application practices are protective of human health and the environment."

"The EPA doesn't do anything and the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Committee (TNRCC) does not enforce any other rules. There's never been an enforcement, across the road, since 1994. Everything changed in '95. Up until then, they (regulators) were staying on them and they were monitoring them, but since then, they've done absolutely nothing. One thing you can count on with the TNRCC is that you can't count on them," exclaimed Massey.

From various conversations Massey has had with officials, from the city level all the way up to the governor's office, he claims the TNRCC "said" they can't come out to monitor all sites, possibly due to a lack of personnel, unless there is a complaint.

"I don't know if ... they're told from the top down that 'you can't do anything ... leave them alone!' They have a free hand. They even monitor themselves," he said.

Massey said that out of five people who started the battle with the sludge, three have died, and many believe it is because of the gasses and bacteria produced in the sludge. He worries about his 3-year-old grandson, conceived on his land, who was born and stayed in the Texas Children's Hospital in Houston for six weeks before they could bring him home, and is developmentally delayed. He believes it is a direct result of the sludge.

Massey also believes the aborted calves that have been found in the pastures could be a direct result of the sludge. He fears for the families who will soon be out duck hunting, lying in pastures that have had sludge fertilizer; he worries about their children.

His major goal has to do with the health of Texans. He just wants the regulatory agencies to "do the right thing."

While calls to Synagro, Inc. were not returned by press time Monday, Sept. 9, Jean Pieper-Voshell, spokesperson of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ as of Sept. 3; formally the TNRCC) did return a call in late August. She said that while there had been a "minor violation" on the property in question in Fort Bend County, on July 31, the problem has already been "resolved." Also, that while there has been a complaint history with the property, only three, minor violations have been reported in the past five years. She also said there is an annual inspection of the sludge fields, and that of Massey's complaints in the last five years, "... most have been unfounded, thus far."