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Below each story are links to other Web sites for more information on the various subjects.

Social services feeling the pinch

Rest area closures have broad impact

Biosolids battle brewing

Social services feeling the pinch

It is Monday morning, and Kimberly Jefferson stares at a stack of new applications for food stamps.

Jefferson, director of the Goochland department of social services, has seen applications for government assistance increase by 50 percent since 2008.

“We are seeing more and more people who have never been on food stamps,” Jefferson said. “[Houses with] two people working, dual-incomes, with one or more laid-off. We’re seeing a lot of new faces.”

Effective October 1, the federal government increased income limits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP, formerly called the Food Stamp Program, is intended for nutritional food purchases only, and can not be used to buy a meal at a restaurant.

For a family of two, the net income limit is $1,215, which is also the poverty level threshold. For each additional household member, the income limit increases by $406.

According to the Virginia Department of Social Services, the income limit adjustments are intended to reflect inflation and cost of living changes. This allows more people to be eligible for services, but it also exacerbates the strain on an already overloaded social service network.

Jefferson said that when applicants earn above the income limit, her staff works with them to find alternative services through the Goochland Free Clinic or the Community Action Agency.

Susan Muir, director of Fluvanna DSS, said that her office was understaffed by eight people before the increase in applications began in late 2007.

“We certainly don’t have the staff to take care of the rise in applications,” Muir said.

According to VDSS, the number of SNAP cases in Fluvanna has increased by 51 percent since 2008. The amount of money paid out has increased by nearly 120 percent.

Fluvanna employs 23 full-time social service positions, and Muir said that they are understaffed by more than 30 percent.

A VDSS report generated by Hornby Zeller Associates, Inc., confirmed that social service departments in Virginia may be understaffed by more than 1,000 full-time employees.

“The state needs to step up to the plate,” said Bob Lingo, director of Orange DSS. “We’ve gone beyond the rising tide–it’s a flood.”

Lingo said the increase in applications compounds the workers’ case loads because every six months the applications must be reviewed.

In April, counties received stimulus funds for SNAP benefits, and some districts also received funds to help with administrative costs. But county officials are concerned that temporary jobs created by stimulus funding will not solve long-terms problems.

“Hiring new workers takes time to train,” Lingo said. “Stimulus money lasts, really, for only 15 months.”

Orange DSS employs 25 people, and like other localities, has shifted employees’ responsibilities to meet the increase in demand.

“We have a number of programs, and the standards are different with each program,” Lingo said, adding that retraining staff to perform new duties is also time-consuming.

Goochland employs 20 full-time employees, including an emergency eligibility worker.

Jefferson said that her office has been able to handle the increase in case-loads.

Orange employs several independent contractors for ongoing services, Lingo said, to help administer the increase in applications.

Lingo added that food stamps are “the perfect measure of the economy. Other [social services] programs have certain criteria, but anyone can walk into our office and apply for food stamps.”

- Published in the October 8, 2009 edition of The Central Virginian

For more information, visit:

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Virginia Department of Social Services

SNAP program information

Commonwealth of Virginia report (pdf)

Rest area closures have broad impact

Times were tough for Eleanor Beard after an accident nearly paralyzed her hands 13 years ago. She was able to get a job with DTH Contract Services, the company that the Virginia Department of Transportation hires to maintain the state’s 42 rest areas.

“There were some things I could do with my hands,” Beard said. “I couldn’t even make a fist at first. But after working, I can make a fist. [My hands] are much better now.”

Beard works at the west bound Interstate 64 rest area in Goochland. On July 21, Beard and 190 to 285 other DTH employees will be out of a job when VDOT closes 19 rest areas statewide. For the 73-year-old Louisa grandmother, her work was her rehabilitation, which is now gone.

“I’ll be okay,” Beard said. “But it’s the worst thing to ever happen to Goochland.”

Rhett Raynor, DTH president, said it could be hard for many of his employees to find a job as stable.

“Fifty percent of what we get paid goes directly to labor,” Raynor said. “When the state cuts the budget, they’re causing unemployment.”

Raynor said that the Goochland rest areas were one of the first in the state, and staff has maintained them to superb standards.

Roy Skeen has been travelling the I-64 corridor for years. Each week he drives from his home in Lexington to Norfolk where he works for NASA.

“I stop at every rest area,” Skeen said.

Skeen walks with a cane, but only when he first emerges from his pickup, until his legs warm up.

“I rely on these rest stops,” he said. “I dozed off once while I was driving, and I pulled off [on the west-bound rest area] and slept for 30 minutes. In that sense, the rest stop saved my life.”

The rest area closings come on the heels of VDOT’s $2.6 billion revenue short fall. In addition to VDOT cutting contract positions, they are also slashing 1,500 internal jobs to help ease their financial woes, said VDOT spokesman Greg Bilyeu.

“VDOT needs to close these rest areas as soon as possible in order to save money,” Bilyeu said. “None of these decisions are easy for the agency.”

The cuts come at time when federal stimulus money recently provided $694.5 million to boost state transportation funds.

“If they didn’t spend [so much] on that Taj Mahal [New Kent rest area], they’d have money to keep us open,” Beard said.

Kevin Moses, who has worked the night shift at the west bound Goochland rest area for 14 years, is convinced that other means could have been found to reach a balanced end.

“[VDOT] hired engineers to come out here and tell us to move that can or cut that grass,” Moses said. “You really need an engineer to do that?”

Despite the outcry, the situation creates an opportunity for local convenience stores.

“I think it’ll be good for business,” said Randy Riddle, assistant manager of Siebert’s in Oilville. “But it’s a terrible idea, closing all them rest areas. Especially late at night when most [gas] stations are closed.”

Tourism in Virginia is also expected to see some hits, according to Megan Svajda of the Virginia Hospitality and Tourism Association. Svajda also commented on the lack of infrastructure in small towns to withstand the increase in demand for rest services.

“It’s going to have a huge impact on localities,” Svajda said. “The [exit ramps] aren’t built for the kind of traffic they are going to see. In the long run, it’s going to cost VDOT more to repair the roads that weren’t built to sustain high volume traffic. And the locals will foot the bill.”

Svajda added that many local businesses will be hurt because their primary advertising was through the brochures that decorate rest area halls.

“A lot of them can’t afford to do magazines or signs, so they do a brochure,” Svajda said. “Hotels and restaurants, they have large groups coming to them from rest areas.”

Truckers are also facing a dilemma. With fewer areas available to catch much-needed sleep, it puts a strain on making their mandatory 10 hours of daily rest.

After Goochland’s rest areas are closed, motorists will travel 108 miles between stops on the east bound side. This has Goochland residents worried.

“You go by [the rest stop] at 4 or 5 in the morning and that’s all you see is truckers,” said Andrew Pryor, District 1 supervisor.

At the board of supervisors meeting on July 7, the board passed a motion to formally object to the state’s decision to close down Goochland’s rest areas.

Clayton Boyce, public relations vice president of the American Trucking Association, said that they are still trying to overturn the closings.

“We wrote a letter to the governor,” Boyce said. “We didn’t receive much of a response... The whole point of these rest areas was to provide people a safe place to pull off, stretch their legs.”

Boyce is also worried that more motorists will stop on the highway shoulder, which can lead to accidents.

“Just last year a couple pulled off the side of the road to switch drivers, and one of them was struck by a car and killed,” Boyce said.

For Beard, there is nothing positive about the closings.

“We have old people who can’t go to the bathroom every 120 miles,” Beard said. “And the truckers, they remember us around Christmas time, and we remember them.”

- Published in the July 16, 2009 edition of The Central Virginian.

For more information, visit:

DTH Contract Services

Virginia Department of Transportation

Virginia Hospitality and Tourism Association

Goochland board of supervisors

American Trucking Association

Biosolids battle brewing

In the wake of much controversy, Nutri-Blend’s permit application to apply biosolids on 1,555 acres in Goochland was approved by the State Water Control Board on Oct. 26.

According to Mary Powell, spokesperson for Nutri-Blend, the company will begin applying biosolids in the coming week.

In August, Nutri-Blend held a public hearing in Goochland, and seven residents spoke out in opposition to the application, claiming that the treated sewage sludge known as biosolids posed a health risk to the community.

“My father almost died from it,” claimed Wendie Roumillat of Jackson Shop Rd. at the public hearing. “It’s awful. We didn’t know what it was, all we knew was there was this terrible smell coming from a field near my Dad’s house.”

While there have been anecdotal claims of health problems from biosolids, none have ever been verified by medical or scientific investigation, said Robert Crockett, representative of the Virginia Biosolids Council.

“Biosolids is a time-tested material,” Powell said in an interview, adding that Nutri-Blend welcomes emerging scientific evidence that would prove otherwise.

In its efforts to support research, Powell said that Nutri-Blend is a member of biosolids associations, which donate funds to colleges and universities that research and evaluate the safety of biosolids use.

Local farmers like Paul Lanier stand firm in their approval of the fertilizer.

“I’ve been using biosolids for over 30 years,” Lanier said. “I’ve got five grandchildren, and we’ve had no health problems.”

Lanier added that his cows have always been healthy, and the biosolids significantly improved the health of his soil.

Andrew Pryor, District 1 supervisor, also uses biosolids on his dairy farm.

“I’ve used it for a long time,” Pryor said, adding that “it’s economical.”

In June, tensions between citizens and the county heightened as allegations arose regarding Goochland’s biosolids ordinance.

Roumillat and Kathy Crockett of Community House Rd. sought an injunction to halt the spreading of sludge in the county, claiming that it was applied on a flood plain and there was a lack of advance notice.

Goochland biosolids monitor Hugh Hardwicke said there was no evidence of a violation, and that the James River was not in danger of being contaminated by run-off.

Despite some citizens’ concerns, biosolids remain an attractive option to farmers, especially given the steady decline in commodities prices during the past year.

Many studies have been done which uphold the safety of using sludge as fertilizer. The Virginia Department of Health claimed “there does not seem to be strong evidence of serious health risks when biosolids are managed and monitored appropriately.”

However, the same study also concluded that “no concerted effort has been made to collect and analyze data on reported health effects resulting from biosolids applied to land,” and that “it is impossible to determine the full extent of chemical content or biological makeup of a particular biosolids mixture..."

Currently, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) tests for 10 heavy metals and nine inorganic chemicals. Before it becomes biosolids, the sludge is treated through either aerobic or anaerobic digestion and/or lime stabilization before being certified for land application.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s 1993 risk assessment analysis determined which biosolids constituents posed the greatest hazard, and tests only for those constituents.

However, a recent EPA study tested for 145 contaminants in 74 randomly chosen wastewater treatment facilities in 35 states.

The results revealed an amalgamation of flame retardants, pesticides, plasticizers, pharmaceuticals, semivolatile organics and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Goochland records indicated that Nutri-Blend’s biosolids come from 38 wastewater treatment facilities in five states.

Powell said that Goochland’s biosolids will likely come from Richmond, Chesterfield, Henrico and/or Washington, D.C.

Powell added that Nutri-Blend gets paid to remove the biosolids from the wastewater treatment facilities–which are funded by taxpayers–then provides it to the farmers free of charge.

Sewage sludge has to go somewhere, and the federal government advocates burning sludge to create energy, although that practice has also generated controversy.

Health concerns regarding biosolids use have prompted several Goochland citizens to contact the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which has helped ban biosolids in more than 70 communities in Pennsylvania.

“Ultimately, it’s not about sludge,” said Shireen Parsons, CELDF organizer. “It’s about democracy. It’s about who gets to choose what the county wants. Is it the citizens or corporations?”

CELDF supporters hope to establish an ordinance that would, in effect, ban corporations from applying biosolids in Goochland.

Goochland records indicate that the company Synagro has also applied biosolids to approximately 5,000 acres in Goochland.

The Virginia Biosolids Council stated that “the amount of farm and forest land that is permitted for biosolids in Virginia is only 350,000 acres—about four percent of Virginia’s farmland.”

- Published in the November 5, 2009 edition of The Central Virginian.

For more information, visit:

Nutri-Blend

State Water Control Board

Virginia Biosolids Council

Virginia Department of Health

Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

Environmental Protection Agency

Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund

Biosolids articles