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Senate cancels hearing on Georgia sludge findings
By BEN EVANS updated 5:39 a.m. PT, Fri., Sept. 12, 2008Font size:
WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats abruptly canceled a hearing on using sewage sludge as farm fertilizer after learning
that two witnesses from Georgia had cited their upcoming testimony at the hearing in trying to win a settlement in a
lawsuit.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee had been scheduled on Thursday to hear testimony from an
Augusta-area farmer and a former federal scientist who have fought the Environmental Protection Agency and the
University of Georgia over the safety of using sludge on farm fields.
The farmer, Andy McElmurray, and the scientist, David Lewis, are suing the University of Georgia Research Foundation
and others, alleging that UGA research was part of a scheme by the EPA to justify a federal policy allowing the
continued use of sludge as fertilizer.
A spokeswoman for the committee said the hearing was canceled out of concern that the private litigation would distract
from the main issue of sludge safety. She said Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., plans to reschedule the session.
In a letter to university lawyers dated Sept. 3, an attorney for the pair warned that they would be testifying at the hearing
and said a settlement would allow them to "praise UGA for its handling of this matter."
"In preparation for the hearing we have realized that it will be a significant event that will bring the issues in this lawsuit
to the national level and elevate our clients' claims," said the letter from attorney Edwin Hallman of Atlanta. "We see a
unique opportunity for the Research Foundation and the individual UGA defendants to settle this matter prior to the
Senate hearing on the 11th of September."
The letter — first reported by the trade publication Environment & Energy Daily — proposes a settlement in which
Lewis, a former EPA scientist, would get a temporary job as a senior research associate in UGA's department of marine
sciences. McElmurray and a second east Georgia farmer involved in the lawsuit, Bill Boyce, would get $100,000 apiece.
Finally, a UGA scientist would be required to acknowledge that the sludge research in question was faulty.
In an interview Thursday afternoon, Hallman said he was not using the hearing as leverage. He said he was simply
giving UGA an opportunity to acknowledge mistakes and settle the case before it was aired in a congressional venue.
"I'm an alumnus of the university and we were interested in preserving the integrity of that institution," he said. "There's
nothing improper with attempting to give the University of Georgia an opportunity before the issues become public to
own up to the fact that a professor published false data."
Wastewater treatment plants across the nation produce about 7 million tons of sludge each year as a byproduct, and
slightly more than half of it is used as fertilizer. The rest is incinerated or buried in landfills. Giving it away to farmers is
cheaper than burning or burying it, and the government encourages using it as fertilizer, insisting it is safe as long as
it's used properly.
But McElmurray and Boyce say sludge from the city of Augusta's sewage treatment plant has poisoned their land and is
responsible for the deaths of hundreds of cattle.
In February, McElmurray won a major court ruling when U.S. District Judge Anthony Alaimo ordered the Agriculture
Department to compensate him for contamination. In his ruling, Alaimo said research about heavy metals in sludge that
was endorsed by Agriculture and EPA officials and produced in part by University of Georgia scientists was "unreliable,
incomplete, and in some cases, fudged."
McElmurray and Boyce, who already have won compensation from the city of Augusta, are now joining with Lewis in
seeking judgments from EPA and UGA scientists, as well as the university's research foundation.
EPA and UGA have stood by the research.
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