Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 1 · column 4 of 5 · from the scan, no model involved
One farmer s
By Monty Tayloe
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
Late last week, Recyc Systems Inc., of Remington, VA officially filed an application with the Virginia Department of Health for permits to spread biosolids or sludge On land belonging to two Rappahannock County farmers. Before a full week had passed, one of those farmers, Alfred Kummli, had already informed Recyc that he was not interested in having sludge applied to his 400 acre Flint Hill farm, Windsor Lodge.
“This is not what I need to put on my land,” said Kummli. According to Susan Trumbo, a Vice President with Recyc Systems, the company will go ahead with their application on the behalf of the other farmer, James Manwaring of Red Oak Ranch. According to County Administrator John McCarthy, VDH will review Recyc’s application and formally notify the county sometime in the next sixty days.
Alfred Kummli maintains that Recyc’s application on his farm’s behalf is due to a misunderstanding. According to Kummli his farm manager contacted Recyc about using sludge as a fertilizer on Windsor Lodge several years ago.
“We were trying to save money. We were spending almost $40,000 a year on fertilizer,” said Kummli. Recyc Systems didn’t proceed on the application at the time, possibly due to Virginia’s shifting legal climate on the issue. According to Kummli, they had not contacted him for a long time before last Friday, when they told him that they were proceeding with the application. According to Kummli, his views on the land application of sludge have changed since his original contact with Recyc, and he no longer sees it as a viable fertilizer alternative.
“I told them that we’re off, that we’re not interested,” said Kummli.
In the few days since it was announced by McCarthy that Kummli and Manwaring were the applicants to Recyc, Kummli and even some of his acquaintances have already faced a negative backlash from some county residents. On the popular county electronic irlailing list “Rappnet,” the prospect of “shunning” for the two applicants was even discussed after their names were released.
“It’s just out of the blue last week,” said Kummli.
For his part, Red Oak Ranch’s James Manwaring remains firm in his decision to use treated biosolids as a fertilizer.
90.3%