[LookOutSugarLake] County passes law controlling sewage sludge

[handr at telus.net]

Thought this would be of interest!
Huguette


Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, June 12, 2008

PACKER TWP, PENNSYLVNIA, PASSES LAW CONTROLLING CORPORATIONS

Chambersburg, Pennsylvania -- On June 11, 2008, the Board of  
Supervisors for Packer Township in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, voted  
unanimously to enact a law that bans corporations from dumping sewage  
sludge as "fertilizer" and for "mine reclamation."

The Ordinance also states as a matter of law that, within the  
community, corporations possess no constitutional "rights," privileges  
or immunities intended for people. The community included this  
provision as a challenge to corporate representatives who use court-  
bestowed constitutional "rights" and legal privileges to nullify local  
laws and override the legitimate rights of citizens.

Board Chairman Thomas Gerhard stated, "We felt that it was in the best  
interests of the residents to adopt the ordinance."

In adopting the law, Packer Township became the third local government  
in the country to define liability and impose penalties for chemical  
bodily trespass, following the lead of the Town of Halifax, Virginia,  
and Mahanoy Township in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.

The people of Packer Township also included a provision that  
recognizes the right of natural communities and ecosystems to exist  
and flourish within the Township, joining nine other communities that  
have asserted environmental protection as an enforceable right rather  
than a matter of discretionary convenience.

The Packer Township law

1) Bans corporations from engaging in the land application of sewage  
sludge;

2) Bans persons from using corporations to engage in the land  
application of sewage sludge;

3) Provides for the testing of sewage sludge prior to land application  
by individuals, with testing costs to be borne by the applicant;

4) Prohibits chemical bodily trespass upon residents of the Township;

5) Establishes strict liability and burden of proof standards for  
chemical trespass;

6) Removes claims to legal rights and protections from corporations  
within the Township;

7) Recognizes and provides for enforcement of rights of residents,  
natural communities and ecosystems;

8) Subordinates sludge hauling and disposing corporations to the  
People of Packer Township;

9) Adopts Pennsylvania regulations as locally enforceable concerning  
the land application of sewage sludge by individuals.

In the Ordinance, the Township Board of Supervisors declared that if  
state and federal agencies -- or corporate managers -- attempt to  
invalidate the Ordinance, a Township-wide public meeting would be  
hosted to determine additional steps to expand local control and self-  
governance within the Township.

The Ordinance was adopted following an attempt by nearby Tamaqua  
Borough's Council Member Cathy Miorelli to investigate the dumping of  
over thirty loads of sludge uphill from the Still Creek Reservoir in  
Packer Township. The reservoir is the source of drinking water for  
surrounding communities, including Tamaqua.

Ms. Miorelli said that when she contacted the state's Department of  
Environmental Protection (DEP) she hit a roadblock. "I asked [Tim  
Craven, the DEP representative] if the substance was permitted. He  
said he didn't know and it would be pretty difficult for him to find  
out." Craven then suggested the Council Member contact the land owner,  
but Ms. Miorelli advised the DEP rep that such an investigation seemed  
to be his responsibility. Pressing the issue, she was able to convince  
Mr. Craven to contact the land-owner, and in a follow-up call was told  
the land owner reported the substance to be "lime."

According to a Times-News report "Everything changed on April 2, when  
Miorelli got a phone call from Craven, apologizing to her and saying  
that she in fact was correct and it was biosolid material [a PR term  
for sewage sludge developed by industry and adopted by State and  
federal agencies] from Philipsburg, N.J. that was dumped in the fields.

"Mayor Christian Morrison took issue with the fact that the DEP  
officials apparently lied and did not perform the appropriate  
inspections.

"'This community has lost faith in DEP and this just doesn't help,' he  
said."

Ben Price, Projects Director for the Community Environmental Legal  
Defense Fund, the organization that helped draft the Packer Township  
Ordinance said, "Once again, the people living within Pennsylvania  
municipalities have concluded that they must rely on themselves, and  
assert their right to govern locally on issues that directly impact  
the local community and environment. In the face of an apparent State  
policy of covering up and enabling waste hauling corporations to wield  
unjust law against Pennsylvanians and profit at the expense of our  
communities, Pennsylvanians are standing up."

Passage of this Ordinance is especially significant at this time,  
since the Pennsylvania Attorney General is suing neighboring East  
Brunswick Township for adopting a similar Ordinance. Acting as private  
litigator for agribusiness and sludge corporations, under authority of  
a State statute lobbied for heavily by these industries, the PA  
Attorney General recently filed a legal brief requesting the court  
overturn East Brunswick's Ordinance without giving the community its  
day in court. In that brief, the top law enforcement officer in  
Pennsylvania made this unequivocal statement his core argument for  
nullifying the local law: "There is no inalienable right to local self- 
government."

It's a point of view we see played out every day in communities across  
Pennsylvania and the United States. By enacting their new Ordinance,  
the community government of Packer Township has outshone its State  
counterpart by recognizing that the consent of the governed is a  
prerequisite for just governments and law.

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, located in  
Chambersburg, has been working with people in Pennsylvania since 1995  
to assert their fundamental rights to democratic self-governance, and  
to enact laws which end destructive and rights-denying corporate  
action aided and abetted by state and federal governments.

Free markets cannot make a mockery of social morality. Not everything  
is for sale.
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