Activist Speaks Out on Sludge: Thomas Linzey Stopped in Bedford County to Discuss an Ordinance to Ban Spreading Sludge.
By Beth Jones, The Roanoke Times, Va.
Jan. 20–Thomas Linzey stopped in Bedford County on Friday as part of a regional tour to spread his ideas on restricting corporate rights.
Specifically, Linzey, executive director of the Pennsylvania-based Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, met with a group of Bedford County employees, elected officials and residents to discuss an ordinance that might prohibit companies from spreading sludge on county land.
Thursday night, Linzey spoke to nearly 200 people in Elliston about standing up against Norfolk Southern Corp.’s plan to build an intermodal rail yard. Friday afternoon, he planned to go to Campbell County, another locality where residents are putting up a stink about sludge.
Moira Bell, who is leading the citizen effort to keep sludge out of Bedford, presented the Bedford County Board of Supervisors with a copy of a sample ordinance, provided by the CELDF, on Jan. 8.
If passed, it would make it illegal for any corporation to apply sludge in Bedford County. Bedford County already has a sludge storage facility on Otterville Road, and an application for a second facility on Moneta Road has been filed with the Virginia Department of Health.
At the Jan. 8 meeting, Supervisor Gary Lowry maintained that it is a matter for the General Assembly to handle. Still, the board elected to kick the sample ordinance to the planning commission for study.
By writing an ordinance targeted at corporations, Linzey explained Friday, rather than as a regulatory issue, companies have to prove their rights exceed the rights of localities. The industry doesn’t want to go down that road, he said.
“It’s about rights, rights of people to govern themselves in their own communities,” he said.
Still, Linzey cautioned, that doesn’t mean the industry wouldn’t sue Bedford County. The ordinance could be overturned in court and the company could demand attorney’s fees and lost profits.
If, on the other hand, the county does nothing, Shireen Parsons, a Virginia organizer for CELDF, cautioned, citizens might hold the county liable if they suffer ill health from the sludge facilities. “They’ll say, ‘Why didn’t you protect us?’ “
Several bills dealing with the spread of sludge have been introduced at the General Assembly this year, including House Bill 2801 sponsored by Del. Kathy Byron, R-Campbell County. It would give localities the authority to adopt ordinances that “reasonably restrict” sludge application.
Any legislation, Bell cautioned, would not take effect until January 2008. Sites already permitted to store sludge would be grandfathered in.
“There are no good options here except to do something new,” Linzey said.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Roanoke Times, Va.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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