The town of Thurston in Steuben County is being sued for its ban on the practice of landspreading, which is the practice of using sewage sludge as fertilizer. Sewage sludge is the byproduct of human and industrial waste produced by wastewater treatment plants.
Thurston banned landspreading last October by passing Local Law No. 3. The ban was enacted due to concerns about the levels of PFAS or “forever chemicals” found in local water sources adjacent to areas where sewage sludge was spread.
A new lawsuit claims the town’s ban impairs business operations for all plaintiffs involved.
The plaintiffs in the suit are New England Waste Services of Maine - also known as Casella— Leo Dickson and Sons, Dickson’s Environmental Services and Dickson Land Holdings.
Casella bought the 150-acre landspreading operation, Bonny Hill Organics, from Leo Dickson and Sons in 2022. Casella also leases 2,700 additional acres from the Dicksons for landspreading.
The lawsuit stated Thurston is in violation of several state and local policies including: failure to refer the law to the county planning department for approval and review, in accordance with the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), and the Agriculture and Markets Law which protects the right to farm in New York.
It also said the town failed to show a public health threat and the PFAS water test results quote “do not show any exceedance of state drinking water standards.”
However, Thurston’s water results showed 63 percent of the test samples from locations adjacent to landspreading in the towns of Thurston, Cameron and Bath indicated PFAS averaged 15.1 parts per trillion (ppt), exceeding the Environmental Protection Agency’s guidelines.
The New York State Department of Health limits PFAS contaminants to 10ppt for drinking water supply systems. However, the state does not regulate private well water, which is the majority of water supply systems in the three towns that were tested.
Thurston is the only town to outright ban the practice of landspreading in Steuben County. Landspreading is allowed in New York state.
The plaintiffs want Local Law No. 3 invalidated.
Thurston town supervisor, Michael Volino declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Rachel Treichler, an attorney who worked on the town’s ban says she expects the environmental law organization, EarthJustice, to defend the case.