City Council - Ordinance Committee

Easthampton City Council Ordinance Subcommittee Meeting Notes June 11, 2024, 6:00 PM Present: Councilor Denham, Councilor Smith I. Moratorium on sludge: no human waste being used on city land, farm land, etc. a. Concerns: health and safety of residents and food impact b. Tonight: having a general conversation moving forward c. Update: reached out to Greg Nettleman (director of DPW) for his knowledge of sewage sludge/dispose of sewage ‘cake’ i. He still needs to gather information/evidence d. This evening: agricultural commission meeting so we can learn about local farmer concerns e. Other communities with this moratorium: Maine, finger lakes in NY, and beginning conversations at state level on sewage sludge and PFAS on soil f. Councilor Smith: we need to understand the impact of human sludge on environment; we determined that the city disposes of our sludge to a company in Chicopee i. Could be resold back to us 1. What does sewage treatment look like? ii.We don’t actually have a city garbage removal, similar to city sludge, we don’t have a place in Easthampton to test soil 1. Effect of GMOs and other aspects that organic farmers don’t want going into their soil 2. We don’t know what this sludge would be made out of aside from refuse itself. From a public health perspective, we just would like to hear more. a. Councilor Denham: The city does everything by code to remove sewage waste out of water, water is then filtered and released into the Connecticut river. The ‘cake’ is the solid waste removed in this process. It’s basically dehydrated solid waste. b. Councilor Smith: second public health perspective: A lot of cities were able to determine a covid spike due to covid in stool. Question: Would covid be removed from the sludge cake? How effective are the mechanisms to purify the cake? i. Is there a need for this in Massachusetts? Is it more economically feasible than giving the sludge to neighboring cities? 3. Other side of argument: with having less cross-contamination from feces of animals interacting with humans, can this be safer due to less cross-animal contamination? No guarantee that using human sludge would be in lieu of other types of compost. 4. Would like to have an environmental scientist opinion on this matter  g. What is the financial impact of testing soil in local farms? What would happen if we find bad stuff in the soil? This could be difficult for our farmers. II. Next steps a. What is the agricultural commission in town’s stance on this issue? b. What do the stewards of water in the city (Nashawannuck Pond, etc) think about this issue? c. Councilor Derby will report on the aquifer and how this impacts that d. Director Nuttleman was concerned that if there are additional things we need to do to our waste, that would be expensive e. Does Easthampton buy any sludge? What is the impact of sludge on public health? i. Effects of pharmaceuticals in sludge as a result of humans having pharmaceuticals III. Councilor Smith: Motion to adjourn the meeting; seconded by Councilor Denham