Sludge Ranch Owner
Is Suing Opponents

EL PASO —(AP)— A West Texas landowner has sued a neighbor and two others for more than $100,000 over their role in attempts to stop a sewage sludge disposal site on his property.

Byard Edwards Jr. is accusing rancher H.L. Richey and consultants Richey hired to study the sludge proposal of trespassing and causing subsequent delays in establishing the proposed Hudspeth County site, which has created a groundswell of opposition in the area.

Edwards' lawsuit, filed last week in Pecos federal court, requests $25,000 in damages for trespass and $40,000 — the amount he stands to make monthly — for each of the two months the site has been delayed.

It also asks for punitive damages and an injunction barring the defendants from future trespassing on his ranch near Allamoore, about 110 miles southeast of El Paso.

Richey, who owns a ranch next to Edwards' property and has been organizing efforts to stop the site, said last Thursday he has not been served with the lawsuit.

"I'll need to study the suit and then we'll respond to it," he said.

Richey said he brought in the consultants to determine whether Edwards' land is suitable for sludge application. Sludge is a substance resembling potting soil that remains after wastewater has been treated. It is often used as fertilizer.

Their findings have been forwarded to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, which is determining whether the site merits the registration it requires to open, he said.

Richey and other residents contend the sludge could pollute area groundwater supplies.

R.J. Longo Construction Co., the New Jersey firm that would be hauling sludge from New York City to Edwards' ranch, maintains the substance is safe.