Nine local governments in the targeted areas have passed resolutions stating their opposition to these plans, or have established ordinances that could make dumping prohibitive. WMPI is one of the John Rich family companies along with Gilberton Coal and Reading Anthracite.

New Castle Township is the most recent to take action, joining West Mahanoy, Conyngham, Mt. Carmel, and Butler townships, and the boroughs of Ashland, Mt. Carmel, Girardville, and Shenandoah. These municipalities are spread throughout an area that has long been dominated by coal interests who for decades sucked out hundreds of millions of dollars of profits, leaving mountains of waste material, called culm banks, towering over the remaining towns.

Under the proposal, the water treatment authority in Philadelphia would pay WMPI $37.50 per ton of sludge accepted for dumping. The coal company says it plans to dump 60 dry tons on each acre of mine land it wants to reclaim, mixing it with the topsoil and spraying grass seed on top. A one-year contract would net the Rich family $1.5 million for hauling away 40,000 tons of sludge.

At a March 26 meeting in Girardville, attended by representatives of 11 local governments, Roseanne Weinrich of the Mahanoy Creek Watershed Association opposed the proposal. She clarified some of the facts, pointing out that dry sludge is sludge that has been incinerated. But what the companies plan to ship to the area is sludge that has been centrifuged and has some water remaining. The 60 dry tons will actually weigh up to 240 tons per acre. She noted there is little or no topsoil in a strip mine. "Strip mine cover is coarse, and has no water-holding capacity. It's anywhere from 25 percent to 95 percent rock and is subject to high erosion," Weinrich said. Rain water would simply drain through the sludge and into creeks and ground water.

Members of the Watershed group have been leading the fight by speaking out publicly on the potential health threats represented by the use of sewage sludge on mine lands. Seventy-five people attended the meeting in Girardville, and 60 the next night in Delano. Union and nonunion miners spoke out at the meetings in opposition to the plans.

According to a February 7 New York Times article, sewage sludge can contain salmonella, typhoid, dysentery, hepatitis, rotaviruses, cryptosporidium, and tapeworms. Weinrich further elaborated on this list, saying it can also contain PCBs, dioxin, predioxins, heavy metals, e-coli, and 60,000 other chemicals.

As an indication of the potential hazards, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines call for no foot traffic for a year following application, and 38 months before planting any root crops such as potatoes or carrots. Nevertheless, the EPA supports the use of sewage sludge for fertilizer. Exposure to sunlight and drying eventually kills off the bacteria, the agency says.

At both meetings, members of the Watershed Association pointed out the dangers posed while the bacteria and pathogens are still active. There are cases where deaths have been linked to exposure to fresh sludge. In Centre County, 11-year-old Tony Behun died from a staph infection contracted after he was covered in sludge from playing on recently treated mine land. Other deaths have been reported in Reading, Pennsylvania, and Greenfield, New Hampshire.

After listening to the presentation and discussion at the meeting in Delano, one woman gave her take on the situation and received a lot of nods of agreement. "I thought the biological attack was supposed to come from Iraq. It's coming from the DEP (Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection), our own government."  
 
 
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