PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: DECEMBER 19, 2017
Citizens’ Group Reports Victory in Battle Against Sewage Sludge
Contact:
Morton Alexander,
Mill Canyon resident mortonalexander@sisna.com
(801) 637-6903
Chrys Ostrander,
former Mill Canyon resident
farmrchrys@gmail.com
(914) 246-0309
Davenport, WA
An informal committee of neighbors in the Mill Canyon area northeast of Davenport, WA is calling it a victory: They didn’t want sewage sludge to be applied to agricultural lands in their watershed. They fought hard against it. Now, due to their efforts, sludge will not be applied to lands immediately adjacent to the canyon where they live, according to a newly approved permit, issued December 13th by the Department of Ecology.
The scale of the win for the committee is significant. The total acreage that will have sludge applied is reduced from the original 887.45 acres to 157.77 acres in the final permit. The original application indicated sewage sludge would have been applied less than one mile from Mill Canyon residents’ farms, gardens and wells and less than half a mile from the source of a private spring used for drinking water that figured prominently in comments sent to the Department of Ecology citing concerns over potential contamination from the sludge. With the approved permit, the closest to the canyon any sludge will be applied is over 5 miles away.
