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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: August 18, 2009 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. q-- - q <br />SUBJECT: Land Application of Biosolids Regional Forum 2009 ~~ <br />DEPARTMENT: Health PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Planning Summary: Biosolids Forum Rosemary Summers, 245-2411 <br />PURPOSE: To authorize redirection of funds from conducting a biosolids research project to an <br />educational forum on land application of biosolids. <br />BACKGROUND: In 2006, because of community concerns about the effects of biosolids on <br />health, the Health Department reserved $10,000 from its operating budget for a research study <br />to get more information about air and water quality in an area surrounding a biosolid application <br />site. The Department developed a service agreement with Dr. Mark Sobsey, an Environmental <br />Sciences and Engineering professor at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health for this <br />study. The agreement was to conduct a pilot study in Orange County to determine air and <br />surface water characteristics before and after the land application of Class B biosolids. There <br />were a number of barriers encountered along the way to designing and conducting this study. <br />These barriers included: <br />• Small amount of funding limited the study to graduate student availability on an academic <br />schedule. <br />• Denial of a grant submittal that would have been used to leverage the available funding <br />from Orange County. <br />• Alternate faculty member that was interested in supervising the student changed <br />academic institutions. <br />• Securing permission from two suitable sites' landowners for voluntary participation in the <br />study. <br />• Identifying an alternative permitted application site with suitable geographical <br />considerations (nearby stream). Two sites had landowner permission but were not <br />suitable geographically. <br />• Drought conditions during 2007 and 2008 were not conducive to commencing the study. <br />In the summer of 2009, Health Department staff met with several UNC faculty members in <br />Environmental Sciences and Engineering to determine whether this study would be able to <br />