Dear CRD Board Chair, members of the CRD Board, and senior CRD staff members,
Below you’ll find a recent story from the New York Times on Fort Worth Texas, a city of just under 1 million residents, terminating their contract with Synagro following evidence the biosolids manufacturer had contaminated area farms and cattle and potentially endangered public health in the region by knowingly distributing biosolids that contained PFAS.
You may all recall that Synagro, a US company backed by Goldman-Sachs, is also the contracted manufacturer of biosolids for the CRD. In ignoring the well-supported, evidence-based concerns of residents and continuing to distribute the CRD’s biosolids for land application in Cassidy within a few hundred meters of the Nanaimo River and to a plant nursery on the mainland, both Synagro and the CRD are knowingly distributing PFAS into the natural environment, thereby exposing Synagro and the CRD (and the CRD’s residents/taxpayers) to the very same legal/political/ethical risk.
To that effect, we’d also like to share a recent CHEK TV News Story titled “Neighbour raises concerns about CRD biosolids being applied to land near Nanaimo” so you can gain some understanding of what exactly this LAfarge “mine reclamation” project consists of, which is quite simply the spreading of our region’s sewage sludge on an open field within a stone’s throw from the Nanaimo River, and of the associated impact the CRD’s current policies and practices are having on the good folks in Cassidy.
We urge you to please read the article below, and in light of this emerging evidence of both potential harms and liability, we urgently request that you follow a similar course of action as Fort Worth by terminate both the contract with Synagro as well as any current disposal strategy that involves land application of biosolids, be that in region or out of region.
A Maker of Sewage-Based Fertilizer Leaves Town Amid a Toxic Crisis
Ranchers in Texas claim livestock was sickened by ‘forever chemicals’ in fertilizer made from sewage sludge. Now Synagro, a Goldman Sachs-backed firm, has lost a deal to manufacture there.
“Dana Ames, an environmental investigator leading Johnson County’s probe of Synagro, said an “exhaustive investigation” had found high levels of PFAS on the rancher’s property. “We have ruled out all other sources of contamination. We also tested the biosolids and found contamination,” she said.
At the council meeting, Luanne Langley, a resident of Grandview, Texas, accused the city of standing by while Synagro “dumped biosolids on unsuspecting landowners and farmers.” She said canceling the contract was not enough. “How is that going to help the families whose lives have been destroyed?” she said.”
Best regards,
Philippe
Philippe Lucas, PhD
Bisolid Free BC
