SLUDGE VICTIMS

few days later, she noticed her tap water was stinking.

"We had no problems with that well for thirty years," says Wayne Lenn,_who owns the property. 'Then the same week they spread the biosolids, the well goes bad." Soon after his tenants noticed the stench, Lenn installed a liner to stop water seeping into the well from surface,

After persistent nagging from Harlow, the Health Department finally tested the well and found the water was contaminated with fecal coliform, a bacteria originating in mammal intestines According to Robyn Joiner, who tests water for Joiner Laboratories in Warrenton, coliform bacteria is easy to detect, and presence of any bacteria from the coliform family means the water could be infested with any number of other contaminants.

The tenants started drinking bottled water. Harlow says the Lenn brothers promised repeatedly to drill a new well, but the weeks rolled on and no new well appeared. As the cost of bottled water and restaurant meals mounted, the tenants grew increasingly frustrated.

'I'm just drawing a military pension,' says Schrader, taking a break from cleaning 20 years of possessions out his house to light a Marlboro. "I'm broke. I can't afford this."

In January, Schrader started trying to get information about sludge. In a letter to the Health Department, he asked if it was safe to shower, cook, or wash clothes with the water.' It took weeks before they finally told him not to use the water, but they refused to tell him what was actually in the sludge.

"I'm not for the policy or against it," Schrader says. "But they need better regulation. All they said is that biosolids are safe. Every time I ask for something in writing they blow-me off. They won't tell me what contaminated the well. They won't admit it could be biosolids."

Schrader tried to find out why he should have to pay for bottled water and restaurant food when, in his mind, the county's sludge policy was responsible for spoiling the well. The county, Bio Gro, and Wayne Lenn have all refused to assist him, although Lenn allowed Schrader to withhold rent for five months.

He also complains of flu-like symptoms he says appeared after the application, and of a chest infection he believes resulted from showering with contaminated water after having surgery.Firing up another cigarette, Schrader admits his health hasn't been great since he returned from the Persian Gulf War, and two years ago a veteran's hospital diagnosed him with a heart murmur. But he's adamant his health has gotten worse since the biosolids arrived.

Since December an informal coalition of sludge critics banded together in Culpeper, sharing stories and frustrations with the Health Department. Schrader keeps careful records of all his sludge inquiry in a thick black binder. "In the Army I learned that you don't open your mouth unless you've got a piece of paper to back it up," he says. "I've talked to everyone but God,' he says. "And nobody cares."

Swanson kept Daily News readers updated on the saga. Plenty of others were ready to speak out against sludge and the Health Department.

Last summer in the Culpeper community of Stevensburg, Bio-Gro spread bioso1ids in a pasture 600 yards from Lori and Scott Handshy's house, an agricultural district Mr. Handshy calls "the sludge capital of Culpeper."

As soon as the sludge was applied, Handshy says a 'horrible dead body stench' permeated their whole house. "It made you gag. You just want to throw up," he says.

Handshy says the smell gave him and his wife nausea, diarrhea, and persistent headaches. When they complained to the Health Department, officials told them the sludge had been applied according to procedure, and the biosolids were not causing their health problems.

-"They all responded with the same canned crap they always put out," complains Handshy. "They say they have evidence it's safe, but they won't show it to us. They say 'Trust us, we're the qovernment.'"

After biosolids were spread near the home of Larry and Sheri Settle in Brandy Station, their dog suffered severe intestine problems after drinking water off the treated fields. They euthanized their pet in October.