Harrisburg, Pa.-The Pennsylvania attorney general is still awaiting a ruling from the Commonwealth Court challenging the right of East Brunswick Township (Schuylkill County) to prohibit the use of biosolids as fertilizer. The action, taken in October 2007, was prompted by complaints that the township adopted an ordinance in December 2006 contrary to the state’s right to farm act, the nutrient management act, and other farm-related state statutes, according to a spokesman for the AG’s office. “The request for the ordinance review came under Pennsylvania’s Agriculture, Communities and Rural Environment (ACRE) law, which directs the office of attorney general to review local agricultural ordinances based on complaints from farm owners and operators for this office to challenge ordinances that do not comply with state law,” reported Nils Frederiksen, the AG’s deputy press secretary. “This particular case involves local limits on agricultural activities which are more restrictive than state law which is something specifically prohibited by those state laws.” One of the complainants, Jeffrey Hill of J.C. Hill Tree Farm, told Green Markets that he hadn’t heard anything new about the attorney general’s suit. He said he was getting a little impatient about not being able to use biosolids, which has caused an impact on his tree farm. “It makes the trees grow faster,” he remarked, “We can harvest them two years sooner.” Frederiksen said the East Brunswick Township case is currently before Commonwealth Court, located in Harrisburg, which has indicated that it will make a decision on the case based on the briefs that have been filed. But the court has set no timetable for a ruling. Schuylkill County residents lobbied for the biosolids ban after two families each blamed the death of one of their children on the use of biosolids in farm fields and others complained of a range of illnesses. East Brunswick is about 65 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain