FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 31, 2003
CONTACT: Thomas Linzey, (717) 709-0457, tal@cvns.net or
Laura Orlando, (617) 524-7258, orlando@riles.org
WASHINGTON—On New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2003, EPA
denied a petition requesting that EPA the agency ban
the land application of sludge. because of its
demonstrated harm to public health, livestock, and the environment. On
the same day, the agency published its review of regulations governing the use
and disposal of sewage sludge; a review prompted by criticism of EPA’s sludge
rules by the National Research Council (NRC). In both responses, the agency refuses
to dohas
chosen not to do what is necessary to protect the food supply, public
health, and the environment.
While
mad cow disease has just come to the nation’s attention, hundreds of cows in Georgia
were poisoned and killed by sewage sludge in Georgia, — sludge that
is no different than that which EPA is telling Americans it is OK
to put on food crops. In June 2003, a Georgia court ruled that land application
of sewage sludge — in compliance with EPA’s sludge rules — caused the deaths of
300 prized dairy cows at the Boyce-family farm in Burke County, Georgia. In
their response to the petition the EPA denies the Georgia judicial ruling that
sludge killed the cows. Ed Hallman, who represented the Boyce family, said,
”The fact is, it was a judgment in favor of the plaintiffs on the claims as
made, and those claims are that the cows were damaged and the land was damaged
as a result of the city's application of sewage sludge."
“The EPA has once again
chosen to make its controversial rulings on a holiday in the hope that no one
will notice it’s obfuscating,” said Laura Orlando, a spokesperson for the
coalition, . “but But EPA’s dodging the
ball when no one is looking is not going to make the facts go away: cows are dying, people
are getting sick, and the food supply is being poisoned.EPA’s
dodging the ball when no one is looking is not going to make the fact that
livestock is dying, kids are dying, and the food supply is being poisoned go
away.”
EPA’s refusal to protect public health and the environment from the harm caused by the land application of sewage sludge further demonstrates that EPA is protecting corporate interests as opposed toover public health and America’s food supply. A similar story is unfolding with Mad Cow and the USDA. EPA’s response to the petition is unfortunately logical because in that it continues to protect multi-billion dollar corporate interests,. When mad cow disease was discovered in a single cow in Washington State, the federal government took action within days. Here we have hundreds of dead cows, several dead peoplethousands of sick people, several deaths, and a court ruling – and EPA wants to do more studies. Laura Orlando, a coalition spokesperson, said, “How many more kids and cows have to die before EPA stops studying and starts acting to protect public health and the environment?” On October 7, 2003, a coalition of 73 labor, environment, and farm groups formally petitioned the EPA to place an immediate moratorium on the land application of sewage sludge and ultimately to prohibit the practice. The petition to EPA offers a detailed case regarding the dangers of land application of sewage sludge and requests this practice be prohibited. Signatories include the United Mine Workers of America, Clean Water Action, the Organic Consumers Association, the Center for Food Safety, Farm Aid, and Citizens for a Future New Hampshire. Please go to www.centerforfoodsafety.org/li/FinalPetitionSludge.pdf for the full text of the petition and a complete list of signatories.
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