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August 22, 2018
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LOCK IT UP:
Health department offers free trigger locks to local gun owners By Karen Chaffraix Times Staff Writer
The Rappahannock-Rapidan Health District, one of 35 divisions under the Virginia Department of Health — this one serving Fauquier, Orange, Madison, Rappahannock and Culpeper counties — has dipped into its budget to buy 2,000 gun trigger locks to offer free to residents, “No questions asked.” “The role of public health is always prevention,” said the district’s April Achter, from her Warrenton office on Friday. Achter spearheaded the project, which began distributing trigger locks
in June. “In looking at our community health needs and meeting with citizens, we found not only that dealing with gun violence was a top concern, but that the suicide rate in our five-county area was higher than the state average.” It’s actually four times as high as the state rate. The five-county region had 16.9 suicides per 100,000 people last year, compared to 4.27 per 100,000 across Virginia. “We think that locking guns could reduce unintentional and suicide gun deaths by up to 70 percent,” she said. While this is the first such pro-
gram in Virginia, “It does have the potential to be replicated across the state.” In 2012, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported that while gun locks are used in about 71 percent of households with children under 12, lock usage drops to about 58 percent when the children become teenagers. Yet it is adolescents, the report said, “with their often impulsive behavior,” who are most at risk of suicide by gun. “The odds are particularly high if the gun is kept loaded,” the report added.
See TRIGGER LOCKS, page 2
Used on Fauquier farms for years, biosolids still raise a stink State study recommends more research into possible health effects By Karen Chaffraix Times Staff Writer
TIMES STAFF PHOTO/KAREN CHAFFRAIX Jordan Koepke, left, and her mother, Maureen Friel, stand at the fence in Maureen’s front yard in Casanova. Friel is pointing to the brown area on the farm across the road where trucks have deposited biosolids, which are then spread by more trucks. The air had been unpleasantly odiferous, and they worry about contamination of Turkey Run, which runs through that field, and of their wells. INSIDE Business.............................................13 Classified............................................28 Communities......................................22 Faith...................................................26
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It was a boiling hot day in mid-July. The air in Casanova hung low and still over its lush rolling hills. And boy did it stink. “Are you aware that human excrement is being spread on the farms out here? We can’t breathe,” the caller said. Barbara O’Brien had come to visit her sister in Casanova. She handed her the phone. Maureen and Robert Friel, retired government folks, 35 years in Casanova, had been watching convoys of tanker trucks turn into the farm across the way for seven days. “As many as 30 a day. We’ve been counting,” Maureen said. “Each one carries 20 to 40 tons. Another company’s been spreading it.”
See BIOSOLIDS, page 2
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FROM PAGE 1
Fauquier Times | www.fauquier.com | August 22, 2018
Used on Fauquier farms for years, biosolids still raise a stink BIOSOLIDS from page 1 The Friels and their daughter and granddaughter were at the house the next day. It was hot, but there was a breeze. The air smelled fine. “The wind is blowing in a different direction today,” offered their daughter, Jordan Koepke. The Friels knew what was happening. They attended a meeting at the John Barton Payne building in January 2017 where an agent with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, which regulates biosolids, answered questions about a permit issued to the German Noguera farm, located across from their house. Robert Friel took notes on a piece of cardboard: “7 — 10 days a year…50 acres @ a time…1x every 3 years…40 dump trailers…” “We knew it was a done deal, that we had no recourse in fighting it,” Maureen Friel said. “Because the permit had already been approved when they had the meeting.” “But the sheer number and size of those trucks,” she added. “The volume of waste being dumped there. We’re horrified.” “What’s being spread over here is Class B [biosolids]. But Class A is better. It’s more highly processed. It contains fewer heavy metals,” said Koepke. “If our wells get contaminated, our homes are worthless.”
What’s that smell?
“Biosolids,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “are nutrient-rich organic materials resulting from the treatment of domestic sewage in a treatment facility.” Long used as fertilizer mostly on crops not consumed by people, such as hemp, hay and timber, biosolids are usually free to farmers and the cheapest way for municipalities to dispose of the solids left over from sewage treatment. Waste-treatment plants contract with land-application firms that haul and apply the biosolids to farms and timberlands. Such firms working in Virginia were paid between $32 - $35 million by treatment plants in 2016, according to a study on the use of biosolids and industrial residues commissioned by the state General Assembly in response to citizen concerns about the safety of using biosolids as fertilizer. Performed by Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the study reviewed scientific research into the risks biosolids pose to the environment and human health and examined the state’s regulations, which are administered by DEQ and the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The study concluded state rules for biosolids “generally protect human health and water quality,” according to an 80-page report presented to lawmakers last fall. But the report also noted the risks of biosolids, which contain hundreds of pathogens and chemicals in low levels, are not fully understood. Among seven recommendations, the study called on
the Virginia Department of Health to research the effect on people in close proximity to farms receiving biosolids and to test biosolids to determine their levels of pathogens. Based on those findings, the state should consider adjusting its regulations to reduce risks, the study said. The VDH is currently developing a plan for such studies with a goal of delivering the results to state lawmakers in by 2020, according to Caroline Holsinger, director of the VDH division of environmental epidemiology.
The view from the regulators
In the meantime, state officials address concerns about biosolids as they arise. “Certainly, from an early age we are taught to avoid our own waste,” said Neil Zahradka, who manages DEQ’s Office of Land Application. “Biosolids is not the same material [as raw sewage]. There have been a number of biological changes,” he explained. The EPA set limits on toxins in the treated material, he added. “They are finding that the concentrations of such materials are extremely small, but the more significant issue is that [toxins] are found almost everywhere in our homes — in our clothes, our cosmetics, our household products. The chemical concentrations we find in biosolids are not alarming.” As far as heavy metals are concerned, for example, “Biosolids contain orders of magnitude less than what is considered dangerous,” Zahradka said.
The view from the tractor
John B. Olinger has a deep, gravelly voice. “Hot? No, not too hot. I’ve got air conditioning,” the 62-year-old farmer said, turning off his tractor. The Remington native and his son farm 140 acres on eight parcels they rent for hay and grazing. This year Olinger is fertilizing with biosolids on three of them, two in Remington and one in Casanova. While this is the first year he’s used biosolids on the Noguera farm, he’s been using the material for ages. “Oh, going way back,” he said. “I was in the dairy business for 15 years, and I was using it before that.” The Friels had a copy of Olinger’s “Virginia Pollution Abatement Permit Application.” Issued by DEQ, it’s signed by him and Noguera. “Safe? Yes, I think it’s safe,” he said. “We move the cows to one side of the farm for 30 days. If they’re lactating, for 60 days. They are real careful about the requirements.” Olinger said he doesn’t think there’s much in the way of runoff. “Once it rains, after they’ve spread it, you can see a clear green line showing exactly where they laid it,” he said. “It makes crops really grow for me. And using it as fertilizer is a lot better than just dumping it.”
The view from the spreader
The side of the white truck says Recyc Systems, and the driver’s name is “Ned, just Ned.” He spent
seven days spreading biosolids on the Noguera farm. “I can understand people being concerned,” Ned said. “But everything is tested and regulated.” Ned grows cattle, corn and soy in Caroline County and uses biosolids on it. “It adds nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, which help the soil hold more water,” he said. “You test the soil and see what’s needed to get the proper pH.” Ned’s clipboard was stacked with soil-test data and maps of wells, elevations and parcel boundaries — and of Turkey Run. When asked how he kept the biosolids from getting into the stream, Ned held up something that looked like binoculars. “This is a rangefinder field laser,” he said. “It’s how I measure distance from the protected areas.”
‘Recycling at its best’
Recyc Systems has been delivering biosolids to Fauquier County for 35 years, owner Susan Trumbo said in an email. “In 2017, we applied 9,467.66 tons to farms in Fauquier County, and as of the end of June 2018, 8,163.08 tons.” She said Recyc isn’t the only supplier to Fauquier, and while Recyc contracts with a number of treatment plants to haul away biosolids, much of the supply comes from the Blue Plains facility in Washington, D.C., which treats Fairfax and Loudoun sewage, among other locales. It pow-
ers part of its operation using biosolids as fuel, a practice gaining momentum around the globe. “Land application of biosolids on agricultural sites is recycling at its best,” Trumbo said. “Farmers get it for free. They get a better crop than they are going to get with chemical fertilizers, and recycling biosolids costs half or less than landfilling or incinerating. … And we help them spread it.”
But still…
Robert Friel was standing in his comfy Casanova living room. He’d been taking photographs of the trucks in the field across the way all week, and the growing mound of black/ brown muck. He said his neighbor, a lawyer, called Fauquier County Supervisor Rick Gerhardt (Cedar Run) who called state Sen. Jill Vogel, R-27th. Vogel, in turn, called Richmond, and learned the use of biosolids is perfectly legal. “So that was the end of that,” he said. A couple of houses down from the Friels live Greg Huddleston and his wife. They have questions, too. “What is runoff from these fields doing to our streams? How is it affecting our wells and watershed?” Huddleston said in an email. “What are the long-term environmental effects? “It’s just not neighborly. And it stinks.” Karen Chaffraix can be reached at kchaffraix@fauquier.com
Health department offers free trigger locks TRIGGER LOCKS from page 1 Burrell Spindel is owner of Virginia Hobbies in Warrenton, one of the partners distributing gun locks for the health district. A sign in his window says, “Free gunlocks.” Of the 72 he had to give away, he’s down to 11. “But I’m calling today to get some more.” Spindel owns four guns, he said, and all have trigger locks. “Even a trained gun user living alone should lock their guns,” he said. “That avoids someone breaking in and using one,” he said. Spindel raised two children with guns in the house, but he said his collection was locked in a safe so big and
everything-proof, it had to be brought into the house by forklift. The devices, made by Master Lock, have a combination lock and fit on all rifles, shotguns and handguns. “Do not attempt to put this lock on the trigger of a loaded gun,” Spindel said, reading the label. “As doing so could cause the gun to go off.” About 1,000 free trigger locks are still available. Residents of the five counties are invited to pick one up at their county health department, or at partner distributors Warrenton Pediatrics, Piedmont Pediatrics and Virginia Hobbies. Karen Chaffraix can be reached at kchaffraix@fauquier.com
Community Editor Anita Sherman, 540.351.1635 asherman@fauquier.com ISSN 1050-7655, USPS 188280 Associate Editor John Toler, 540-351-0487 Published every Wednesday by jtoler@fauquier.com Piedmont Media LLC Staff Writers How to reach us Karen Chaffraix ADDRESS: kchaffraix@fauquier.com 41 Culpeper Street Warrenton, Virginia 20186 James Ivancic, 540-878-2414 PHONE: 540-347-4222 jivancic@fauquier.com FAX: 540-349-8676 HOURS: 8 a.m. 5 p.m. weekdays, Jonathan Hunley, jhunley@fauquier.com 24-hour answering service Publisher Sports Editor Catherine M. Nelson, Peter Brewington, 540-351-1169 540-347-4222 pbrewington@fauquier.com cnelson@fauquier.com Sports Staff Writer NEWSROOM Jeff Malmgren, 540-874-2250 jmalmgren@fauquier.com Editor in Chief Christopher Six, 540-212-6331 ADVERTISING csix@fauquier.com Ad Manager Managing Editor Kathy Mills Godfrey 540-351-1162 Jill Palermo, 540-351-0431 kgodfrey@fauquier.com jpalermo@fauquier.com Classified Sales Consultant Web/Copy Editor Jeanne Cobert, 540-878-2491 Amanda Heincer, 540-878-2418 aheincer@fauquier.com jcobert@fauquier.com
Chairman Emeritus George R. Thompson To place Classified and Employment ads: Call 540-351-1664 or fax 540-349-8676, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday — Friday or email fauquierclassifieds@fauquier.com SUBSCRIPTIONS Call 540-347-4222 Help with your subscription? Call 540-878-2413 or email CirculationFT@fauquier.com Missed your paper? Call 540-347-4222, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays Subscription: $69.68 per year within the United States. POSTMASTER: Send address 41 Culpeper St., Warrenton, VA 20186. Periodicals postage paid at Warrenton, Va. and at additional mailing offices
NEWS
Fauquier Times | www.fauquier.com | August 22, 2018
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Two arrested in ‘meth lab’ bust outside Warrenton By James Ivancic Times Staff Writer
An active methamphetamine lab outside Warrenton was broken up by the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office over the weekend, resulting in the arrests of a man and a woman from Maryland. David Waple, 31 of Fairplay, Maryland, and Tara Gladhill, 30, of Hagerstown, Maryland, were arrested at 5149 Rock Springs Road, according to the sheriff’s office. They were charged with manufacturing a controlled substance — methamphetamine; possession of controlled substance-methamphetamine; conspiracy to manufacture a controlled substance-methamphetamine; and possession of drug paraphernalia. The sheriff’s office said the meth lab was in a trailer behind the Rock Springs Road residence. Execution of a search warrant on Saturday, Aug. 18, led to the confiscation of 500 grams of methamphetamine-sludge, which has an estimated street value of $50,000, according to a sheriff’s office press release. Drug paraphernalia and a 2004 Ford F-150 pickup truck were also seized, the Sheriff’s Office said. Leading up to Saturday’s raid, the sheriff’s office on Friday, Aug. 17 investigated a report of two suspicious persons knocking on doors on Rock Springs Road. Devin Donnell Thom-
David Waple, 31, of Fairplay, Maryland, left, and Tara Gladhill, 30, of Hagerstown, Maryland, right, were arrested Aug. 18 in connection with a methamphetamine lab uncovered in a residential area outside Warrenton, according to the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office. COURTESY PHOTOS
as, 28, of Hagerstown, Maryland, was arrested for possession of schedule I, II drugs, in connection with that report. On Saturday, Blue Ridge Gang and Narcotics Task Force members obtained information that methamphetamine would be located at 5149 Rock Springs Road. Clandestine drug labs producing methamphetamine are uncommon in Fauquier County. The sheriff’s department last uncovered such an operation in 2015, according to Deputy Joell Kight, spokeswoman for the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office. The investigators believe the lab was operating for about four weeks, Kight said. “We appreciate the working rela-
tionship with all members of the Blue Ridge Gang and Narcotics Task Force in the successful operation to rid the community of dangerous drugs as in this case,” Sheriff Bob Mosier stated in the press release. The Blue Ridge task force consists of Virginia State Police, Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office, Culpeper
Police Department, Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office and the Warrenton Police Department. The Northwest Drug Task Force also assisted. The New Baltimore Volunteer Fire Department was also dispatched to the scene. Reach James Ivancic at jivancic@ fauquier.com
Town of Warrenton refuse schedule for Labor Day Monday, Sept. 3 Holiday — no pickup Tuesday, Sept. 4 Mondays and Tuesdays refuse collection Wednesday, Sept. 5 Recycling collection (card board, newspaper and blue bags) Thursday, Sept. 6 Regular refuse collection Friday, Sept. 7 Regular refuse collection
ATTENTION: FAUQUIER FARMERS & AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS
YOUR PROPERTY RIGHTS ARE IN DANGER
Fauquier County government officials are at it again in a supposedly agricultural friendly community! First it was Martha Boneta with her farm in Paris, Virginia. Now they are moving on to other farms in the county.
On August 16, 2018, the planning commission recommended approval for a text amendment to the zoning ordinance that would NOT allow us to bring in soil to build a farm or to level out existing fields to increase crop area which would increase yield and have better manageable fields to cut hay, nor make it easier to plant and harvest or for livestock to get around easier. This would also not allow us to fill in old livestock ponds that breed disease to make a better more productive use of that area which up until now we had a by-right use of our land to do with what we saw fit and suited us. Now the county wants to step in and regulate what we can do with our own property which as previously stated, is a by-right use and take that away from us. What is going to be next? How many rows of corn you can grow in one year? How many yards of sod you can cut in one year? Or how many cattle you can raise in one year on your property? This is not good for any of us as this will be used as a stepping stone to take more of our by-rights away and constrict us to what they feel is fit for our own property.
Please let’s make our voices heard to the Board of Supervisors at their meeting on September 13, 2018, at 6:30 pm at the Warren Green Building, 10 Hotel Street, Warrenton, Virginia. You can call them at their office at 540-422-8020 or email them:
Chairman of the Board, Christopher Butler in the Lee District @ chris.butler@ fauquiercounty.gov; Mary Leigh McDaniel, Vice Chair in the Marshall District @ maryleigh.mcdaniel@fauquiercounty. gov; Rick Gerhardt in the Cedar Run District @ rick.gerhardt@fauquiercounty. gov; Chris Granger in the Center District @ chris.granger@fauquiercounty. gov; or Holder Trumbo in the Scott District @ holder.trumbo@fauquiercounty. gov; as well as our County Administrator Paul McCulla @ paul.mcculla@ fauquiercounty.gov or your Virginia Delegate Mike Webert @ DelMWebert@ house.virginia.gov or Delegate Elizabeth Guzman @ DelEGuzman@house. virginia.gov or your Fauquier Farm Bureau board member John Schied @ john.schied@fauquiercounty.gov
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