Come and be heard on biosolid proposal

To The Eagle:

In re: Hearing on spreading septage on farmland:

I just got off the phone with the head of Solid Waste at the Department of Ecology. My questions were: Why we were not getting the information meeting we had requested? Why a hearing first at which they will have testimony first and a meeting, if there is time ,afterward?

The man did not understand my question of why they were holding the hearing first and the meeting after. I tried to explain that it is like taking a test without knowing the material that will be asked in the exam. I said that people needed to make informed decisions and to do so we need the information about septage or biosolids before the hearing in order to testify.

His response was that we will have had 30 days to have the information we needed.

Reminder: We requested an information meeting. Response: We have found that having a hearings specialist at the hearing makes the hearings go more smoothly due to the rules of the hearing at which only testimony will be heard.

Okay. A hearing specialist to enforce rules and order?

Testimony before public information meeting?

What I heard was manipulation. What I heard was about control. What I heard was an abrogation of a state agency to inform the public.

What I heard was a dismissal of concerns as the concerns we'll raise will have no basis that contradicts or does not support their wish to approve the pending application.

This is just my opinion but what do you think? The thing is that they "review" the testimony for relevancy, factual and scientific basis and a number of other criterion. Maybe after they have reviewed and weighted the testimony and approved

the application, they will decide to have a meeting or just file it under well done.

According to the head of the Solid Waste Program at the EPA, this "Sludge-gate" is the biggest scam ever perpetrated by the government, that the EPA has turned their disposal nightmare into a dispersal farmland program, from hazardous waste (EPA label) to biosolids and what good PR can do for you.

The hearing and possible meeting to follow will be, as you know, at 6 p.m. on May 3. Please come and be counted.

This is still our county, I think.

Cynthia Lahti

Grays River, WA