Coweta residents

and one elected official made one point quite clear at a Tuesday night

meeting at the Coweta County Fairgrounds: keep your sludge in Fulton County.

SCS Environmental

Services of Tucker conducted the meeting to explain its intentions for

farm land in northern Coweta County.

The company

wants to take thousands of tons of sludge, which is the by-product of

wastewater treatment, and spread it over 900 acres on three farms in Coweta

and South Fulton counties.

Company President

Ed Norfleet said the sludge is rich in nutrients for crops and safe to

apply to fields.

Company technician

Eric Mudd said the sludge is placed on only well-established fields and

buffers are established by the state Environmental Protection Division

to protect private water sources, such as wells.

Mudd said the

sludge would come from Fulton County's Big Creek treatment plant in north

Fulton County and said the nutrients released by the sludge are time-released

to make the crops grow faster and healthier.

But County

Commissioner Lawrence Nelms, who quietly watched SCS's presentation, asked

to read a letter from County Attorney Mitch Powell.

In the letter,

Powell calls the staging of a public hearing premature on the company's

part because county officials were never officially notified of the process.

"That

renders this public hearing void," said Nelms.

Nelms added

that there is no zoning category in Coweta County that allows for such

dumping, and called the idea "illegal and unconscionable."

"There

is just no redeeming factor," he said as the crowd of 200 stood and

screamed wildly.

Perhaps the

most poignant anti-sludge voice came from Beverly Thompson. Thompson's

family owns a farm in north Fulton County where sludge was used as a fertilizer.

Thompson said

her 82-year-old father agreed to allow a company to spread the sludge,

but quickly found out the downside.

"The flies

were so thick on our doors, we couldn't even open them," she said.

Thompson said

the trucks that applied the sludge left large gaping holes in the fields

and her father eventually ordered the sludge company off his property.

Norfleet said

he was not aware of the case and said his company had never been cited

for any violations by the EPD.

He added that

this was only the first stage of public comment and that EPD officials

would start taking official comment on the matter starting either July

3 or 4.