Synagro NY Bronx- Foes Raise Stink over Firm Permit

Foes raise stink over firm permit
BY BILL EGBERTDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Environmental advocates in the South Bronx have been trying for years to revoke the solid waste permit of the smelly New York Organic Fertilizer Co.
Now they've found out the firm, which roasts sludge to produce fertilizer pellets, doesn't actually have one anymore.
"I was definitely surprised that its permit has been lapsed for 18 months," said Kellie Terry-Sepulveda, executive director of The Point CDC, a longtime crusader for cleaner air in asthma-ridden Hunts Point. "It's also troubling."
Regulations do allow extension of expired permits but only if a "timely and sufficient" renewal application has been filed.
But the state Department of Environmental Conservation has rejected the company's renewal application as "incomplete" four times.
The discovery by Columbia University School of Law's Environmental Law Clinic was noted in a detailed letter to the DEC on behalf of The Point CDC.
Columbia lawyers cited city regulations, state regulations and case law, indicating that under the circumstances, the firm's renewal application should now be treated as a new permit application, requiring public hearings.
The letter also documents repeated violations of the fertilizer factory's expired permit and city law - including discharging untreated sewage into the East River.
The company general manager, John Kopec, said the facility has "made many changes" since most of the documented violations. Of the assertion that the firm no longer has permission to operate, Kopec deferred to counsel.
"Right now it's in our attorneys' hands," he said.
DEC spokeswoman Kimberly Chupa responded, "The department's treatment of this application is consistent with state law and regulations governing permit renewals. The solid waste permit application from [the company] which we have before us is a renewal/modification application.
"In December 2004, the department and the facility entered into a consent order to address previous air and solid waste violations. Currently, DEC is working with the facility to ensure that the renewal application and modifications are consistent with the consent order."
Rep. Jose Serrano (D-South Bronx) said he was "deeply concerned" about the company's record - especially a series of fires and explosions at the plant in the summer of 2004 - and called on the DEC to close the controversial facility.
"It is incumbent upon [the DEC] to fulfill its enforcement and oversight responsibility," said Serrano. "Until [the company] comes into compliance and has a valid permit to operate, it should be shut down."

August 21, 2006
New York Daily News


Elena Conte
Solid Waste and Energy Coordinator
Sustainable South Bronx
Greening for Breathing Coordinator
890 Garrison Avenue, 4th Floor
Bronx, NY 10474
phone 718.617.4668
fax 718.617.5228
elena@ssbx

Synagro fined $35K 2004

Sludge company fined

State levies $35K penalty for sloppy handling

By JIM HOOKSenior writer --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A company that applies biosolids to farm fields in Franklin County was fined $35,000 for spreading and storing the treated sewage sludge unlawfully. Synagro Mid-Atlantic Inc. has paid $35,000 to the state Department of Environmental Protection for several violations in Franklin and five other counties between January 2003 and July 2004. Synagro is the region's largest land applier of sewage sludge, according to DEP.

"You wouldn't expect this type of action from a company that deals extensively with the storage and application of sewage sludge," DEP South-central Regional Director Rachel Diamond said. "These violations could have been and should have been avoided." Spreading biosolids on farmland and reclaimed strip mines became an approved method of disposing of sludge from city sewage plants in 1992, when a federal law banned ocean dumping. In recent years some citizens and health officials have become increasingly concerned about potential health risks associated with the practice.

Violations included spreading sewage sludge on frozen ground, spreading sewage sludge on an adjacent landowner's property without written consent, improper storage of sewage sludge, and failure to prevent runoff from entering nearby streams. Environmental impacts to the streams were slight and temporary, according to DEP.

"Synagro takes its responsibility for environmental compliance seriously," Synagro spokeswoman Sharon Hogan said on Wednesday. "In every instance of noncompliance, Synagro worked closely and promptly with DEP to address and correct the situation." Intense storms in 2003 challenged the integrity and capacity of existing DEP-approved bisolids storage facilities, she said. As a result of problems, Synagro immediately began working with DEP to improve storage design standards. Synagro invested more than $500,000 to upgrade its storage areas, all of which now meet the new design standards.

DEP did not have a specific policy or method for determining what constituted "frozen ground," Hogan said. All the violations occurred on the same day for all sites in the state where Synagro was spreading, based on DEP's inspection of one field. "Synagro believed in good faith, that on that day they were in compliance with frozen ground restrictions," Hogan said. "Since this incident, DEP has clarified how frozen ground determinations are to be made." Several violations were due to the carelessness of an employee, who has been fired, according to Hogan. Synagro has conducted an internal review of compliance procedures and has increased training and oversight of all staff working in Pennsylvania.

Synagro was fined $15,000 for violations in Adams, Berks, Franklin and Lebanon counties during 2003 and $20,000 for violations in Berks, Lancaster and York counties during 2004.

"It was made clear to the company that continuing violations would result in significantly higher penalties and would threaten Synagro's ability to continue operating in Pennsylvania," Diamond said. "Company officials made a commitment for significant improvements to their performance over the next 12 months." Synagro is permitted to apply biosolids to several fields in Franklin County.

Local residents have formed a watchdog group, Coalition of Residents Organized for Political Self-expression (CROPS). Selena Strine is a member of CROPS who lives with her family in Peters Township, a half-mile from a field where biosolids are spread. "I'm glad they're enforcing the regulations," Strine said. "It's a $1,000 fine (for spreading on a frozen field in Montgomery Township), and it's a multimillion-dollar company. I don't know what that's going to do. At least they are enforcing the regulations." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jim Hook can be reached at 262-4759, or jhook at pubop.com.

Originally published Thursday, September 23, 2004

For Odors Unpleasant, Inspiration from Wall Street

For Odors Unpleasant, Inspiration From Wall Street
Sunday, August 13, 2006



http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/nyregion/thecity/
13stoc.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Hunts Point
By JENNIFER BLEYER
Published: August 13, 2006

When it’s especially hot out, or the wind is blowing in a certain direction, Silkia Martinez refuses to eat outside in her Hunts Point neighborhood. The odor from the New York Organic Fertilizer Company’s plant, she said, might make her gag. “It’s plain old nasty,” said Ms. Martinez, a freshman at the Interboro Institute and the mother of a 6-year-old girl. “It’s as bad as when you pass a horse stable.”The plant, which is part of Synagro Technologies, a Houston company, converts much of the city’s sludge into fertilizer pellets, but many residents say it also produces an intolerable stench. They have made those complaints since the plant, which is between the Bruckner Expressway and the East River, opened in 1992. Now critics have taken a new tack in their 14-year battle.In 2004, a consortium of nonprofit organizations, including an environmental advocacy group called Sustainable South Bronx, bought 1,750 shares of Synagro stock for about $2.50 a share — a token holding, but enough for a shareholder vote in the company. Since then, the critics have discovered that investors can have clout. In December, for example, they proposed a shareholder resolution requesting that Synagro report how many toxins, molds, pathogens and other substances are released from the plant, and how those pollutants affect local health and safety.In May, at the annual shareholder meeting in Houston, the resolution garnered 31 percent of the vote — more than enough to hold management’s attention.

“We were thrilled,” said Elena Conte, a coordinator at Sustainable South Bronx. This is not the first time critics of the plant have sought creative solutions to their problems. Last spring, for example, a teacher and students at St. Athanasius School, a Catholic school on Southern Boulevard half a mile from the plant, printed about 400 “Smelly Calendars” on which neighbors could down particularly noxious days to report to 311, the city government hot line. Since becoming a shareholder, the groups say, they have had strikingly good results, among them productive meetings with Synagro’s chief executive, Robert Boucher, and its general counsel, Alvin Thomas. Before the consortium made its investment, Ms. Conte said, “there would be no way we would get a phone call from the C.E.O. and head lawyer.” “As soon as we introduced the resolution, they flew to New York.”The shareholder activists are continuing to meet with Synagro executives and are working with them on the scope of a report on the plant’s operation and emissions. “As long as it’s cost-effective and provides useful information, we’ll do it,” said Mr. Thomas, whose company accepts some responsibility for the local smells, but also points out that other odor-causing businesses are in the area. Sister Valerie Heinonen, a New York consultant with the national Mercy Investment Program, one of the groups in the consortium, hopes that Hunts Point residents will soon see benefits from the stock holding. “We’re not just looking for a report,” she said. “We’re looking for an improvement in the situation that gets accomplished through the report. We’re looking for a return on our investment.”