Augusta's dismal history of policing industries that send chemical waste to the Messerly Wastewater Plant made it difficult to regulate the sewage sludge it produced, according to an environmental compliance expert.
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"If a metal goes into a treatment plant, it has to go out - either in the effluent or in the sludge," said William Hall, an engineer and hydrologist at Newfields Inc., an Atlanta environmental company.
Mr. Hall, who aided the U.S. Postal Service during the anthrax crisis and has designed and managed sewage plants throughout the Southeast, testified Friday as an expert witness on behalf of Boyceland Dairy, which is suing the city of Augusta for $12.5 million.
The Boyce family contends that 23.4 million gallons of sludge placed on their land from 1986 to 1998 - supposedly as a beneficial, free fertilizer - was contaminated with heavy metals that poisoned their cattle and land.
The city denies those claims, but has not yet presented its defense in the Superior Court trial.
Mr. Hall told jurors Friday that household sewage - from toilets, shower drains and sinks - is relatively easy to predict and treat. Industrial wastes that contain chemicals and heavy metals are vastly different.
"In Augusta, these waste streams are mixed," he said, noting that industrial waste can contain dangerous materials - such as dioxins, PCBs and heavy metals - that don't break down and dissipate like the less volatile constituents in domestic sewage.
Because sewage sludge is a byproduct of all the wastewater treated at the plant, it is imperative that industrial wastes be monitored and controlled, he said.
"The best way to control it is pretreatment - at its source," he said. Industries are required to screen their wastes before the material is sent to the sewage plant, he said.
Augusta's track record, however, is poor when it comes to pretreatment, he said, citing about 400 "notices of violation" issued to industries that violated rules governing constituents in sewage.
Jim Ellison, one of Augusta's defense lawyers, objected to the discussion of deficiencies in Augusta's pretreatment program and said it has nothing to do with the sludge applied to the Boyces' farm.
"I know you want the jury to hear how bad the wastewater treatment plant is, but that's not the focus of this case," he told the plaintiff's attorney, Ed Hallman, while jurors were outside the courtroom.
Judge Carlisle Overstreet agreed. "What comes out is what's important," he said and ordered that Mr. Hall's testimony focus primarily on the sludge that was placed on the Boyce farm.
Mr. Hall, speaking later before jurors, said pretreatment violations have a direct impact on the sludge.
"The more control the plant has over incoming sewage, the better they can predict and control the quality of the sludge going out," he said.
Citing compliance records generated by Georgia's Environmental Protection Division and the city of Augusta, he also said problems with industrial wastes made the resulting sludge "highly variable" in terms of quality.
Testimony is scheduled to resume Monday in Richmond County Superior Court.
"The more control the plant has over incoming sewage, the better they can predict and control the quality of the sludge going out." William Hall, an engineer and hydrologist at Newfields Inc.
Reach Robert Pavey at (706) 868-1222, ext. 119, or rob.pavey@augustachronicle.com.
