SLUDGE VICTIMS

When I asked the EPA person about the amine gases, all I got was a blank stare. I told him I lived in Winchester for 23 years and I have never before seen this white cloud which hangs over the field.

A retired professor from Riverside College is on the committee. He said it looks like vapor or moisture release. I said this is different from a mulch pile which might steam on a cold morning. This white cloud appeared in August when they first started applying the sludge. The pile was sitting out there for 30 days or longer. They came in the middle of the night to add sludge to the pile.

In January 2001, my husband went outside to work on fencing for the property line. There was a pile of lumber for the fencing ... residue which had been there for the past 2 years and had not been washed off. After a couple of hours of working with that lumber, his throat started feeling thick. By the next day, the right side of his tongue was swollen and there were blisters on the back of his throat. My husband said the right side of his head felt like it was swollen and tingly. My husband is never sick -- he hasn!t been to a doctor in 28 years, After a week, I took him to the clinic. The doctor didn't know what was wrong with him and gave him antibiotics.

My husband got a sliver in his finger when he was out working on the pile of wood which had been sitting there for 2 years. He may have ingested a virus or bacteria if he put his hand in his mouth to try to get the splinter out.

( I told Shelly we are hearing from many victims suffering rashes and mouth and throat blisters. We are beginning to wonder if these people are suffering from hand, foot and mouth disease caused by coxsackievirus in the sludge. ) Shelly said her next door neighbor had blisters all over his tongue and a real bad cough.

My husband is still coughing. He was knocked down and out. He was a strong man who does masonry work. It took him a couple of months to get better. He still suffers from coughing spasms. He is slowly recovering from the weakness and is started to get his strength back.

My husband, Dan, told the clinic doctor how they were putting sewage sludge next to our house and that it was blowing all over everything. The doctor looked at him like he was crazy and said " They don't do things like that!"

MY GRANDSON has these terrible bloody noses -- so bad it is like a hemorrhage. If he stays away from my house for a week, he doesn't have any bloody noses. But when he comes here, if we go outside, he gets them again. My grandson doesn't even want to go outside any more because of the smell. I sprayed all his toys and play gym with disinfectant.

The plastic chairs outside are getting brown stains. Even using bleach, I cannot remove the stains from the chairs.