Subject: NACWA-WEF Conference Call Regarding Senate EPW Hearing on Biosolids From: "Frank, Steve" Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2008 14:20:16 -0600 To: "Pearlman, Steve" , "Gerali, Cathy" , "Hull, Donna" , "Biggs, Barbara" , "Woodis, Amy" , "Merritt, Kelley" , "Stefonick,Nikki" , "Jeannie Bowser, CWWUC Administrator" , I participated today in a conference call chaired jointly by NACWA and WEF regarding the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s anticipated hearing on biosolids, tentatively scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 11. Participants included people from New England, WashDC/Virginia, here, and the West Coast. Here’s the gist of what I heard: It appears the anti-biosolids witness list is more or less set. It is believed to include Ellen Harrison, David Lewis, the farmer from Georgia who was featured in the first AP story, and perhaps a few others. An anti-biosolids web site has also been encouraging its adherents to write letters to members of the EPW committee saying how bad biosolids are. On the other side of the witness ledger, the committee appears still to be fishing. Included are EPA’s Ben Grumbles (who Boxer attacked pretty savagely in the drugs-in-your-water hearing two months ago) and Chris Westhoff of Los Angeles representing LA & NACWA. It is possible one or two other people representing municipalities that land apply biosolids could also be called, but that is not known yet. Dave Taylor of Madison and Chris Peot of DCWASA were called by a senate staffer. WEF has not been asked to provide testimony or a witness. Nor has USDA. The consensus of the participants is that the hearing is part of a case Sen. Boxer is building to examine/call into doubt the efficacy of the 503 regulations and to, perhaps, tighten the biosolids regs next year. Through conversations, the senate staffer who contacted Taylor and Peot indicated that the two anti-biosolids AP stories would likely weigh heavily in the “evidence” that would be presented. The conversations also indicated dioxin (EPA’s failure to regulate it in biosolids) could come up, as could compost made with biosolids. It was Adam Krantz’s (NACWA) feeling that, owing to the date (9/11) and the late-in-the-day time for the hearing to kick off, it would not get a lot of attention by the media. There is no way to know. We will hold another conference call next Tuesday at noon our time to see what is known then. Steve Frank Metro Wastewater __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 3415 (20080904) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com