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 5 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
eeks^sludge
“I certainly don’t want to alienate people, but I think that biosolids have a place in farming,” said Manwaring He became interested in sludge as a fertilizer when it was recommended to him by a fellow cattle farmer in a neighboring county. Manwaring thinks environmentalists that oppose land application of sludge are oh the wrong side of the issue.
“Applying sludge to farm land is the best way to handle it. What else are {treatment plants] going to do with it? If you bum it, you are hurting the ozone layer, if you haul it away you’re just putting the problem in someone else’s yard,” said Manwaring.
“What I’d like to see is the county taking responsibility and regulating it,” said Manwaring, a possibility that many who oppose sludge hauling will also support at the October 2 hearing.
On sludge *
The land application of sludge h$s been banned in Rappahannock County since 1994, but changes to Virginia laws in the intervening years have made that ban effectively illegal, and the use of sludge as a fertilizer is a common practice in many nearby counties, including Culpeper, Madison, and Fauquier. If Recyc Systems’ application to spread sludge at Red Oak is granted by the VDH, the county would almost certainly lose a court challenge to the ban. After a closed session at their September meeting, the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors decided to hold a public hearing on possibly repealing the ban on October 2.
Whether referred to as sludge or biosolids, sludge is mostly solid human waste left over after the wastewater treatment process. After it has been further treated and processed, it can be used as an effective fertilizer. It’s attractive to farmers because it doesn’t cost anything; Sludge haulers like Recyc are paid by municipalities to take their sludge away. The sludge that would be spread on Red Oak Ranch would come from the Blue Plains treatment facility in Maryland, and has its origins in the digestive systems of
88.0%