Tamaqua Revolts Against Sludge

Wednesday's anti-sludge forum in Tamaqua, attended by some 120 area residents, was the topic of a report by Donald Serfass in yesterday's Times-News. Among those who spoke were the parents of a Berks County teen who died after sewage sludge was spread near their home, and leaders of Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a Chambersburg-based organization that helps communities enact and defend ordinances designed to strengthen local control over environmental regulation.

Attendees called on Tamaqua Borough Council to adopt an CELDF-drafted ordinance that "would: 1) ban corporations from hauling or dumping sewage sludge; 2) prohibit individuals from land applying sludge unless each load is tested for compliance; 3) recognize the rights of residents to a healthy environment; 4) extend rights to community residents to protect the environment; 5) protect the community from corporate challenges to the ordinance and 6) give individual residents authority to enforce the ordinance," according to Serfass.

CELDF has drawn up other model ordinances that protect the rights of nature, assert liability for bodily chemical trespass and prohibit unsustainable energy production. The group also conducts "Democracy Schools" that teach citizens how to effectively challenge corporate power. CELDF held one session in Schuylkill Township earlier this month, and another in Frackville in March.