Mount Vernon Optic-Herald

Residents of the Daphne Prairie are in an uproar over the proposed permit for dumping of treatment plant waste on about 400 acres of property in their area about three miles northeast of Mount Vernon. The application was filed March 12, 2011 with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The efforts came to light only this past weekend when one of the adjacent land owners received a letter notifying him of the proposed permit. “This has spread like wildfire among the people,” stated Mary McClennan, who was the spokesperson for a group of about six Daphne Prairie residents who attended Monday’s meeting of the Franklin County Commissioners Court.
Franklin County Judge Paul Lovier concurred that the concern had been growing. “I had three phone calls yesterday [Sunday] and had a fellow at church talk to me as well,” Judge Lovier noted.
The sludge is from waste water treatment and fresh water treatment facilities operated by eight cities, special utility districts and private corporations. The cities of Mount Vernon and Winnsboro are among those listed as contributors to the materials.
Other operators of treatment plants from which the material is to be hauled to Franklin County are the cities of  Flower Mound, Daingerfield, Como,  the Combined Consumers Special Utility District and Kaufman County Fresh Water Supply District 1A-Waste Water Treatment Plant, as well as the commercial plant operators Aqua Texas at Buffalo Creek.
A copy of the application is at the Franklin County Library and at the Mount Pleasant Public Library. Parts of the property are in both counties. For more information, see the June 16 edition of the Mount Vernon Optic-Herald.