Disputed compost facility to go before state water board

VICTORVILLE • The local water quality board Wednesday could issue one of the last permits Nursery Products needs before it can break ground on a sewage sludge composting facility near Hinkley.

But the chairperson of a citizens-based group opposing the project says it will do everything it can to convince water board officials to require that the proposed facility be enclosed.

The Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board could issue a waste discharge requirement permit, which would require Nursery Products monitor the groundwater at its 80-acre project site. Nursery Products also has to take measures to ensure that contaminants don’t leach into the ground water, said Mike Plaziak, the local water quality control board’s supervising geologist.

To comply with Lahontan requirements, rain water will be collected in four-acre ponds that are 10 to 11 feet deep at the Nursery Products site, said Chris Seney, the company’s director of operations. The ponds will be lined with clay and thick plastic liners, and a berm will surround the entire facility. Groundwater is about 366 feet below the site, Seney said.

According to Norman Diaz, chairman of HelpHinkley.org, retention ponds and a berm won’t keep contaminated water on the project site during a rain storm. Too much water stops the composting process, he said, and creates odor problems and problems with flies. HelpHinkley.org will have 15 minutes to speak on the project.

“If we enclose this facility all the other problems are kind of solved,” he said. “(There’s) no more dust that can get into water sources. If we cover the site and cover the piles we’re not having a conversation about water discharge because there is none.”

HelpHinkley.org is waiting on a decision from a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals judge on the original environmental impact report. The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors will also rule on the group’s decision to appeal the company’s conditional use permit, which was awarded in December.

Once Nursery Products has obtained the waste discharge permit, final approval from the Board of Supervisors is all that is needed before construction can begin, Seney said. That decision could come in April or May.

“We’re hoping to build this summer,” Seney said. “We’ve received a lot of calls recently about jobs. It’ll be about 30 jobs.”

The county approved an environmental impact report on the compost site in February 2007. As a result of a lawsuit filed by HelpHinkley.org against Nursery Products and the county in 2007, a judge ruled that a supplemental environmental impact report needed to be completed. The report focused on water quality and supply issues, the economic feasibility of enclosing the facility and the facility’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or jcejnar@desertdispatch.com

IF YOU GO:
What: Water Quality Control Board ruling on Nursery Products composting site.
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday
Where: The Grumpy Golfer at the Green Tree Golf Course Clubhouse at 14144 Green Tree Boulevard in Victorville.
Information: Agendas and staff reports are available at www.swrcb.ca.gov/rwqcb6/