A unit of Casella Waste Systems Inc. filed suit late yesterday against the Town of Thurston to try to block enforcement of a new local law that bans the spread of municipal sewage sludge on certain Steuben County fields.
The Vermont-based company that operates landfills and composting facilities across New York and New England alleges that Thurston’s law violates the state’s Right to Farm law as well as state solid waste policy.
The suit asks a Steuben County Supreme Court judge to invalidate the law and prevent it from being enforced.
Thurston enacted its Local Law No. 3 in October, citing concerns that the state has been too lax in regulating PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ in sewage sludge, allowing widespread contamination of crops and groundwater around sludge-spread fields.
Members of the Thurston Town Board have noted that Maine banned the spread of sewage sludge statewide in response to devastating PFAS pollution that ruined milk and crops, forcing several farms to shut down.
But Casella’s suit claims the town acted “without the benefit of any bona fide testing or analysis linking land application of biosolids (the state’s term for sewage sludge) to PFAS contamination.”
The suit also cited Casella’s concern that “if the ban is upheld … other municipalities will follow suit … further prohibiting the use of organics (another euphemism for sewage sludge) to enhance farming operations throughout Steuben County.”
Furthermore, the suit said, the ban would inflict economic harm on local farms because they would need to substitute expensive chemical fertilizers for sludges to maintain crop yields.
The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit is New England Waste Services of M.E., Inc., a Casella subsidiary. Other plaintiffs include Leo Dickson & Sons Inc. and related farming entities in Thurston.
The Dickson family has been spreading municipal sludge on its fields for several decades.
Casella acquired the Dickson sludge operation in July 2022 for $2 million,…
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