Allies join E. Penn sludge fight

East Penn Township residents opposing a plan to spread treated sewage sludge on a farmer’s fields are finding allies from around the state.

On Monday a group of residents met to discuss their opposition to Synagro Inc.’s plan to spread sludge on a 165-acre farm in the township.

Opponents include neighbors who live near the farm owned by Dennis Cunfer and Wanda Crostley, as well as other residents of East Penn Township.

Speakers at the meeting included organizers of a law firm which focuses on the rights of small communities, and an organizer who has fought proposals to use sludge on farms in other communities in Pennsylvania and beyond.

“This is good that they’re behind us, but this is for us to get together and take our own initiative to stop this,” resident Mike Kocher said.

Legal defense

Representatives from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund talked about how their organization advocates for the rights of residents and municipalities where companies have proposed projects that impact the environment.

The defense fund has opposed sludge spreading, water extraction and fracking in communities around the country. East Penn Township has hired the group to see if the township can do anything to regulate the use of sludge.

Defense fund organizer Ben Price said the current system is backward as taxpayer dollars are used to protect polluters against challenges from residents.

One such law, he said, is Pennsylvania’s law regulating biosolids, the Agriculture Communities and Rural Environment Act. Price said the law gives the attorney general the right to sue municipalities with their own rules regarding sludge, if a resident files a complaint.

“Your attorney general would be the private attorney for the industry suing you for daring to protect your rights, it’s an upside-down legal situation. It’s exactly the opposite of what you would expect to happen in a representative democracy,” he said.

That situation could pan out in East Penn. A relative of farmer Dennis Cunfer wrote a letter to the AG’s office asking for a review of East Penn’s ordinance No. 77, which has more restrictions on the use of biosolids than the state’s own law.

The relative, Katie Hetherington-Cunfer, is also a director in the Department of Environmental Protection, which approved the biosolids plan. She pledged to recuse herself from working on her family’s plan in her official capacity with DEP.

Price said he can’t guarantee the township will triumph, but he will help them stand up for their rights.

“Our approach is to put the rights of the community into an ordinance,” he said. “The people of this community have an absolute right to clean air, pure water, soil, and they have a right not to be poisoned,” he said.

Fellow protester

Darree Sicher of the United Sludge Free Alliance said Pennsylvania is a hot spot for sludge, importing from five other states, because our regulations are less restrictive than the surrounding states.

“I’ve told our state legislators, we could change our state motto to ‘Come take a dump in Pennsylvania,’” she said.

While sewage sludge is marketed as being human waste only, the sewage treatment plants it comes from treat industrial and medical facilities as well as residential customers, she said.

Because they are aimed at farmers, sludge companies are counting on the fact that scattered neighbors in a rural area won’t be able to change the laws regarding sludge disposal, Sicher said.

“I got involved because someone I know had it spread near their home. A sludge hauler said, ‘There will never be enough people voting to stop this,’ ” she said.

Kocher said publicity will be a priority for the group. He asked residents for help to get their voice heard through submissions to media outlets in Carbon County and beyond.

“Coming together as one is the only way that we can beat this,” he said.

Timm Berger, a district staffer for Rep. Doyle Heffley, stood in for his boss, who was in Harrisburg. Heffley’s only declared opponent in this fall’s election, Democrat Kara Scott, also attended the meeting.

Berger said Heffley opposes the use of sewage sludge in the township. He also encouraged the group to use the media to spread its message and create a grassroots campaign.

“This has to be a grassroots issue, I think we’re all on the same page. You gotta make noise — petitions, door to door — you have to get in front of people. Let them know there’s an issue,” he said.