Selectmen Hear Request
To Open Sludge Operation
By Sara Nelson

Sludge is not a very glamorous substance, but somebody’s got to deal with it.

A byproduct of wastewater treatment, sludge is composed of the human, industrial, and other solid wastes that are flushed down the toilet or poured down the drain.

And it costs money to get rid of the stuff. Currently, Randolph pays about $28,000 to have the 75 tons of sludge it produces annually hauled to an incinerator in Coventry.

(Previously, it could be spread on farm fields in the region, but new permit requirements make that impossible.)

"It’s one of the larger items in the water and sewer budget," public works director John Rotter said.

But, as the selectboard heard Monday night, a local businessman would like to change this situation.

Robert Dimmick, the owner of New Tech, a company that "de-waters" sludge to make it lighter for shipment, asked the board to consider leasing him land at the current town landfill to build a sludge composting facility.

At such a site, Dimmick says he could process Randolph’s sludge more cheaply than the current removal price, although exact figures weren’t known. Dimmick suggested that the compost could then be used to "restore" some of the degraded land at the site, turning it into ball fields or community gardens.

Frank Reed, Dimmick’s consultant, said the facility would also be a source of jobs in the community.

"These would be jobs involving equipment operation and chemical testing—not minimum wage jobs," he said.

In addition to a sludge composting facility, Dimmick said he’d also like to open a separate "organic compost" operation for yard and kitchen waste as well as organic waste from restaurants, schools, and landscaping companies.

However, it was the sludge part of the equation that drew the most discussion at the selectboard meeting.

In response to questions following his presentation, Dimmick said that there would not be a strong odor from the facility, and that environmental impact would not be a great concern because the sludge, or "biosolids" composting would ripen within an enclosed building.

Some audience members praised the plan for its environmental responsibility and urged the board to "take the opportunity to promote a local business."

Selectboard Chair Jim Hutchinson said the next step would be for Dimmick to meet with the water and sewer advisory committee to hash out details.

"I agree that this is a fabulous opportunity and one that we shouldn’t miss, but there are possible pitfalls in anything, so we need to look at this closely,’’ Hutchinson said.

In an interview later, Rotter said he was concerned about an issue that didn’t receive much attention during the meeting, which was the fact that to make the compost, New Tech would need to acquire additional sludge.

Dimmick’s presentation included figures for sludge the company would hope to acquire from Bethel and other nearby towns.

Rotter said that this dependence on Randolph sludge should be taken into account in negotiations with Dimmick.

"If they need a certain amount of biosolids to operate the facility, are they going to require Randolph to supply them?" he wondered.

However, Dimmick said that this aspect of the plan could be beneficial to Randolph, since New Tech could pay the town a percentage of the fees it received for processing sludge from other towns.

Steve Springer, the chair of the water and sewer advisory committee, said another contract-related obstacle Dimmick’s plan will have to overcome is the fact that the town is likely to build a new wastewater treatment plant in the next five to ten years. Springer said there’s some possibility that a new plant, through composting or some other way, could process its own sludge.

If that were the case, the town "wouldn’t want to commit" to a long-term contract with New Tech, Springer said.

At Monday’s meeting, Dimmick proposed a 10-year renewable contract, but he gave the impression he would be open to other arrangements.

He said that although he doubts the town could do sludge composting more cheaply on its own, he would lend his support to the project.

"Whether I do it or you do it, I’m just for it and I think it should happen," he said.

Dimmick’s enthusiasm for the project has to do with the environmental friendliness of composting. Dimmick and Reed recently took several selectboard and town greening committee members on a field trip to the Intervale in Burlington, a network of community gardens and farms. The Intervale has a large, profitable, compost operation that Dimmick says could serve as a model for composting operations in Randolph.

At the site, organic "inputs" including everything from individuals’ yard trimmings to Ben and Jerry’s ice cream waste are rotated through a series of huge piles at various stages of decomposition.

After nine months, the compost is "mature" and ready to be bagged and sold to farmers and gardeners.

Although the Intervale composting site doesn’t work with sludge, compost educator Eric Van Vlandren said many of the principles are similar. Van Vlandren said the Intervale was interested in offering support and expertise for Dimmick’s plan.

"We’re always exploring ways to get organic waste out of the solid waste stream," he said.

Chemicals?

One concern Van Vlandren addressed was the question of toxic chemicals showing up in the finished compost.

"We do periodic testing for them, but it seems like the bacteria in the compost are able to metabolize most of them, so we’ve never had them show up," he said.

Whether this would be true of sludge composting isn’t as clear, although Dimmick said there would be testing done on the finished compost and there are "strict federal guidelines" for safe amounts of chemicals in sludge compost.

If there is any place where waste processing has a hint of glamour, it is the Intervale, but for Dimmick this is clearly not a motivating factor.

"I just want to see us solving problems locally," he said during the trip.

"Sludge is a problem that we have the expertise and the know-how to solve in Randolph."