York, Penn.-Public Justice, which claims to be involved in a broad range of high-impact, cutting-edge litigation, has joined 37 Pennsylvania residents in lawsuits against Synagro Technologies over health and other problems, which they maintain were caused by biosolids that were not properly treated before being applied to farmland near their homes. The lawsuits have been dragging on since July 2007 in state and federal courts, which recently handed the suits back to York County, declaring they did not have jurisdiction. “It’s been mostly a procedural battle so far. So now it’s basically back to the starting line,” Chris Nidel, co-counsel with Public Justice, commented on the suits. He said the suits rose from complaints ranging from contractors refusing to come into a home to do work and friends refusing to visit because of the odors, to individuals with antibiotic-resistant staph infections and others complaining of nitrate or coliform contamination in wells. “One party had to go the hospital to have a catheter inserted so drugs could be administered, and several others have been hospitalized with infections,” the lawyer reported. Jim Hecker, Public Justice’s environmental enforcement director, said the Washington, D.C.-based group is joining this case because the land application of sewage sludge is an issue of national importance. “States and EPA have created a huge loophole allowing sludge to be applied close to homes with inadequate safeguards to protect public health. This case is intended to compensate the victims of this dangerous practice and create a financial incentive for corporations and sewage treatment plants to use safer disposal methods.” Last October the York County Court of Common Pleas set the stage for continuing discovery and preparation for trial by denying Synagro’s preliminary objections to the complaint.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain