More information about the north annexation area

NORTH ANNEXATION AREA USED AS A DISPOSAL SITE FOR MILLIONS OF GALLONS OF SEWAGE SLUDGE (1974-1977)

Some long-time area residents remember the Unified Sewerage Agency using the North Annexation area to dispose of sewage sludge in the 1970s, so an attempt was made to get the records of this activity.

The Agency has now evolved into “Clean Water Services,” and a request was made for all available information about sludge disposal on this site. Mike Cropp, who farmed this site at the time, applied to have sludge put on a total of 662 acres. Of this acreage, approximately 550 acres are located north of North Avenue and Mountaindale Road, including the North Annexation area.

Clean Water Services could not locate records of quantities put on individual fields, but they did locate the summary that is attached. During these 4 years, a total of 40.84 MILLION GALLONS of sludge was dumped on the “Cropp Farm Sludge Disposal Site”. If this sludge were uniformly distributed on all 662 acres, it would amount to over 1.4 gallons per square foot.

The documents contain further information about the contents of the applied sludge, including quantities of some heavy metals. Clean Water Services has provided assurance that there is no human health hazard associated with the materials dumped on the Cropp farm.

However, no one from the City has even mentioned that this area was used as a sludge disposal site. Friends of North Plains presents this information so that you can make your own informed decision about whether you want to breathe the dust generated by construction activity on this site; whether you want your children to be playing in this material while in the proposed new parks, or your future neighbors' yards; and whether you want to help pay for any future legal action brought against the city for locating homes in this area.

Since we are not experts in this area, we are not suggesting that this sludge is hazardous. But it only takes one future resident thinking they have been harmed to bring a legal action that could be very expensive for the city.

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