SLUDGE VICTIMS

RIVERSIDE ---- Scores of children and adults from Menifee Valley pleaded with the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to halt the dumping of sewage sludge near their homes because it is making them ill.

The residents of the neighboring communities of Menifee and Winchester said the dumping has been going on for years. They made their comments during the board's weekly meeting in downtown Riverside.

"Stuff is being dumped by my home and it makes me very sick. Please help all of us make it stop," said Shane Wornboldt, a 10-year-old Winchester resident.

Fellow Winchester resident Dylan Halsey, 7, said he is often sickened by the odors coming from the sludge that is produced from human waste and used to fertilize land in the area. He complained of getting several (ed:severe) nosebleeds and headaches.

"Please make it stop," Halsey said.

But undercutting their cause is an operating permit from Riverside County, Supervisor Bob Buster said, that allows the spreading of the sludge to take place. Buster called for an immediate look into the claims by the residents and asked for a report to be compiled on the issue.

The sludge is produced by the Synagro Technologies compos tingplant in Temescal Canyon a nd spread by the company on up to 15,000 acres in Southwest Riverside County for farmers. Farmers are required, under a county ordinance, to till under the sludge within 24 hours.

But Buster said that may not be happening, and some of the sludge is lying dormant.
"So it is ending up on land that is designated as farn-dand even though it is not being farmed," Buster said.

Supervisor Jim Venable, whose district includes Winchester, said he has met with representatives of the Riverside County Farm Bureau to address the problem. He said an ordinance is being crafted to try and resolve the situation and should be ready for the board's review in January.

JANUARY 18, 2001 RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA -SLUDGE VICTIMS: CHILDREN GETTING SICK AND SUFFERING HEADACHES, NOSEBLEEDS