Court decision expected soon on local sludge ban

From an article in yesterday's Allentown Morning Call:

Just weeks after receiving letters in 2006 from the state Department of Environmental Protection that a local tree farm would be spreading sludge on hundreds of acres, residents of East Brunswick Township in Schuylkill County responded by lobbying their supervisors to enact a no sludge ban, which they approved that December.

But the tree farm, J.C. Hills, complained to the state attorney general, who filed suit against the township claiming the ordinance violated a 2005 state law that prohibits municipalities from regulating sludge.

A decision on the suit, now before the Commonwealth Court, is expected within weeks if not days. But whatever the verdict, the question of who decides on the use of sludge -- commonly known as biosolids -- is an emerging controversy in Pennsylvania and one that is gaining traction with its municipalities.

Other Schuylkill County communities that have enacted similar bans or announced support of East Brunswick's ordinance include the borough of Tamaqua and the townships of Mahanoy, Packer and Rush, where Hometown is located. Elsewhere across the state, communities in Lancaster and York counties have also taken action against sludge dumping.