The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania)

Reclamation developers deny sludge suggested:
Opponents of project say e-mails prove the developer wants to bring sewage mix into Hazleton.

Steve Mocarsky, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader

Aug. 3, 2006

HAZLETON

Opponents of a mineland reclamation project that would use material dredged from rivers as fill say they have proof that the project developer wants to add sewage sludge to the mix.Bill Lockwood, president of Save Us From Future Environmental Risk, said his group obtained an e-mail between state officials describing the developer's interest in biosolids, commonly known as sewage sludge.The e-mail was in a stack of documents requested in the discovery stage of litigation the SUFFER group filed to stop the reclamation project.Lockwood said biosolid disposal can mean big money for developers, but he said studies have shown that even the least-hazardous forms of biosolids can pose significant health risks and even death.Another project opponent, state Rep. Todd Eachus, D-Butler Township, said the e-mail "makes it clear to me that the developer and partner with the city have had discussions about Class B biosolids being mixed with the dredge."

However, Mark McClellan, the consultant for the Hazleton project developer -- Hazleton Creek Properties, em-phatically denied that the developer wanted to bring sewage sludge into Hazleton.In response to previous comments Eachus made about sludge being used in Hazleton, McClellan said there was "no basis for Rep. Eachus' unfounded allegations.

"When read excerpts from the e-mail, McClellan said discussions he and the project developer had with DEP about biosolids did not involve Hazleton Creek Properties.Ronald Furlan, a solid waste manager for the state Department of Environmental Protection, sent the March 4 e-mail to another DEP official describing a meeting he had that day with McClellan and Bill Rinaldi, who heads Hazleton Creek Properties.Rinaldi is also an officer with Mark Development, a company based at the same Edwardsville address as Hazleton Creek Properties.Furlan said he met with the men to discuss a rail transfer station at a dredged material storage site at Fort Mifflin, near Philadelphia, where dredged material would be loaded in train cars for transport to Hazleton.The railroad company told Mark Development that if they operate a rail spur line, they must agree to service other companies that operate along the spur line who request rail service, Furlan wrote.The City of Philadelphia asked Mark Development if they could use the transfer station at Fort Mifflin to load biosolids from their adjacent sludge composting facility onto train cars for transport, Furlan wrote.

DEP initially said no, because a separate permit would be needed for waste material not generated at the dredge storage site. But McClellan pointed out that a DEP policy states that "exceptional quality biosolids products will not be regulated as waste," Furlan wrote."As the conversation continued, Mr. Rinaldi stated that he was also interested in possibly taking in clean fill from construction/demolition sites and eventually mixing it first with the dredge material and eventually maybe with the various categories of biosolids," Furlan wrote."I don't know anything about that," McClellan said when read the statement attributed to Rinaldi.It's unclear which company or companies Rinaldi was representing at the meeting with Furlan, as Rinaldi did not return a phone message or respond to written questions faxed to his office.Mayor Lou Barletta said no one from Mark Development mentioned biosolids coming to Hazleton. And he said an agreement between the Hazleton Redevelopment Authority and Hazleton Creek Properties wouldn't allow it.

Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 459-2005.