About twenty miles from Raleigh, there is an historic community that has been struggling to preserve its legacy and future against the encroachment of neighboring cities. New Hill, North Carolina, a charming community in southwestern Wake County, reminds us of an earlier time before the sprawl of the Triangle expanded to encompass over four counties. Now, the middle of New Hill is targeted to host the 230 acre site for a new sewage treatment plant serving Apex, Cary, Morrisville, and Holly Springs.
Recently, the United States Army Corps of Engineers published a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) reviewing the potential environmental consequences of this sewage treatment plant. Unfortunately, as highlighted by SCSJ on behalf of our clients, the New Hill Community Association, this assessment was woefully inadequate on numerous levels.
For example, the DEIS only gave lip service to the disposal of “biosolids” from the sewage treatment plant. The euphemistically entitled “biosolids” are actually the sewage sludge left over after waste goes through the treatment process. Sludge that includes materials such as PCBs, pesticides, dioxin, heavy metals, industrial solvents, nitrogen, phosphorous, organic matter, fire retardants, antimicrobial chemicals, prescription and non-prescription pharmaceuticals, radioactive substances from research facilities and hospital waste, pathogens not destroyed by convention treatment, hormones, detergent metabolites, steroids, fragrances, plasticizers, and disinfectants, to name a few. The unnatural elements contained in sewage sludge have been linked to everything from livestock aborting their fetuses to ailments in newborn children.
Despite the dangers associated with sewage sludge, the DEIS tells the public very little about how this material will be managed. It does not clarify how the material will be treated onsite, how the material will be disposed of offsite, and makes no reference to monitoring this material once disposed of.
Having already objected to this cursory treatment of sewage sludge at public hearings and in public comments, the New Hill community, working with SCSJ and the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, has hosted two screenings of the documentary “Sludge Diet” in recent weeks. Over 50 community members have attended viewings of the film, which chronicles the dangers associated with this sewage treatment byproduct. The message is clear: the people of New Hill are not resigned to hosting someone else’s sewage plant, but instead are informing themselves of the dangers associated with the plant so they can object in an educated and forceful fashion.
