Petition to Support Our Municipalities in Regulating Activities Harmful to Residents

THIS PETITION CALLS FOR OUR STATE LEGISLATURE TO STRENGTHEN THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN PROTECTING THEIR RESIDENTS FROM ACTIVITIES, INCLUDING SEWAGE SLUDGE, THAT THREATENS THEIR HEALTH, WELFARE, AND SAFETY AND TO IMPROVE STATE REGULATIONS AND OVERSIGHT OF THE USE OF TOXIC SEWAGE SLUDGE FOR FERTILIZER.
 
In 1982 the Right to Farm Act was passed. This law protected farmers from interference from local authorities when conducting normal farming activities. The law made normal farm activities off-limits for local regulation, except for any activity that endangered local residents' health, safety, and welfare. Farming activities also lost their protection if they resulted in the pollution of streams or waters. This Law was a reasonable compromise to protect farming and local residents. 
 
And then, big agriculture decided to expand the “Right to Farm” law to protect extreme farming (aka factory farming) activities. Act 38, called the ACRES Act, was passed in 2002. The Association of Township Supervisors vehemently opposed this law because it stripped local municipalities of their capacity to regulate farm waste or odor in any way. Also placed on the “cannot regulate” list is the use of sewage sludge as fertilizer.
 
What is sewage sludge? The Basics
Municipal Wastewater treatment plants must deal with everything that is poured down the drains or flushed down the toilet. The liquid part of this deluge is treated and returned to rivers or oceans. Sewage sludge is the solid waste that is left after wastewater is extracted. It is a slurry of human feces, pathogens, heavy metals, toxins, and industrial chemicals. Getting rid of this solid waste is an expensive problem for municipal wastewater treatment plants. 

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* Do you believe local governments should be able to regulate or prohibit the use of sewage sludge as fertilizer within their borders?

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In the United States, the primary reuse of this solid waste is to use it as fertilizer. The sludge is treated to kill bad things like most pathogens, but the treatment does nothing to eliminate heavy metals and chemicals like PFAs (forever chemicals because they don't break down). Treatment plants pay distributors to find farmers that will take the sludge and use it.

Your common sense tells you that introducing this solid waste into the human food chain is a bad idea, and you would be right. It should not be used on farmland that grows forage for cattle or food for human consumption. 

Despite the obvious dangers of covering cropland with this treated sewage sludge (marketed as Biosolids), its use in Carbon County has exploded over the past few years. Sewage sludge is being used here because it is given to farmers at no cost, and farmers are unaware of the long-term damage that this sludge can do as it accumulates in the soil. 

The State of PA says that this sludge has valuable nutrients. Do you think these "valuable nutrients" outweigh the danger posed by the toxic materials in sewage sludge?

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The dangers of sewage sludge use are beginning to emerge. The State of Maine has banned its use because high levels of “forever chemicals” were found in animals that foraged in fields treated with sludge. The forever chemicals were also found in these animals’ meat and milk, making these products unsafe to consume. Farmers have been forced out of business because their fields were too contaminated to use.

In Pennsylvania, the regulations to produce sewage sludge fertilizer do not limit the content of PFAs, and the sludge is tested for only a limited of toxins. The state routinely relies on the producers of this sludge and the distributors to self-regulate. State Law also prohibits local jurisdictions from regulating the application of sewage sludge in any meaningful way.

Those who live next to fields treated with sludge have been subjected to the smell of feces and fears about well contamination and threats to their health. These residents are no longer at ease in their own homes, but their township government can do nothing to protect them.

Do you think that sewage sludge is a benefit to our county?

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Article 1. Section 27 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania states, "The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and aesthetic values of the environment."

The undersigned calls upon Pennsylvania Legislators to:
1) allow local municipalities to fulfill their constitutional duty to protect their residents from activities threatening their health, welfare, and safety or threatening the pollution of streams, water, and wells and allow local regulation or prohibition of sewage sludge.

2) enact stronger regulation of the production and application of sewage sludge to farmland and provide for the PA Department of Environmental Protection to closely monitor both production and the application of sewage sludge to ensure all regulations are enforced.

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