EPA Failing to Enforce Standards

Re: “Sludge Creates Stink for Tract Residents” (Jan. 3):

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, our “premier” government watchdog agency, actually condones the dumping of sludge onto farm fields because we’re running out of landfill space and we have to get rid of it.

Evidently the agency believes that creating a few new standards will ensure the safety of this reckless practice, but standards need to be strictly regulated and enforced and in this regard EPA is a failure.

We already have a massive overload of toxic chemicals in our fields--now let’s add a dose of sewer sludge that contains heavy metals, other toxins regularly used by virtually every household in the county and organic biohazards. What we end up with is a recipe for chemical and biological warfare agents.

I understand the plight of people complaining about the noxious odor emanating from fields laced with this stuff but the problem pales in comparison to the short- and long-term dangers posed to human health and the environment.

I hope the new year ushers in a mass public awakening to industrialized society’s self-destructive practices, and brings together all of our technological and scientific might to reverse unsustainable lifestyles, and the impacts they have and will continue to have on the ecosystem.

TERRI GAISHIN

Camarillo