_logo_phere . . .Takin’ the “BS” out’a the BlogoSphere

I guess this lawyer, Ed Hallman, of the Atlanta law firm Decker, Hallman, Barber & Briggs, has done more for the anti-BS effort than any other single individual I know. And let me just quickly follow that up by saying that I know a lot of dedicated individuals in this game. People who have committed immense amounts of time, energy, and money to the goal of ending land-application of BS, and for no other reason than to see that the right thing is done, particularly with respect to the rural people who are forced to eat BS spread all over the Atlantic Coast by Synagro, Nuti-Blend, and many smaller players. A few of these sludge-warriors do this work as a part of their job and get some remuneration, but many of them are slogging away week after week without a dime of compensation for their efforts. Every one of them is a part of the effort that will — eventually — eliminate all land application of sewage sludge in this country.

But I feel that Ed Hallman is working on a level well above the rest of us, and getting things done that we have not been able to. He has the resources and skills that allow him to go into a federal court and accuse the EPA and the University of Georgia of malfeasance and fraud. And that’s what he’s done. He has taken on David Lewis’ whistleblower case against the EPA and he has already won it in the sense that now the entire county knows what a bunch of malicious nematodes were running the EPA and running Lewis out of it.

If all you do is read the court opinions, it appears that these favorable outcomes were all but certain and all you have to do is file some papers and sit back while the judge works out the only answer. But until you’ve been in the middle of it, it is really hard to appreciate how stressful litigation is when you’re a lawyer and you know your client is right but proving it is up hill all the way. It only takes one mistake, one bad decision, one missed deadline, one lapse of judgment and tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of litigation costs can go down the toilet with your client’s case. And I’m sure this firm has made a huge monetary investment in this litigation.

Ed lost the first round in the McElmurray sludged-cows case against Augusta when the Georgia trial court threw the case out, but he got that judge reversed on appeal and eventually he prevailed with the jury — the farmers won half a million against Augusta. Then Ed won McElmurray’s case against the US Dept of Agriculture in federal court and he got a blistering opinion by Judge Alaimo that scorched the eyebrows of the EPA sludge-dogs and threw open the shutters so everyone in the country could see what’s been going on. In the Lewis whistleblower case Ed is going after the main EPA sludge-dog, John Walker, and the University of Ga. crowd who wrote the allegedly fraudulent sludge-is-safe paper that had an enormous impact on BS policy in this country.

Most recently Ed has waded into the fray over the Johns Hopkins sludge-the-po’-black-folk research program, carried out by Mark Farfel and Rufus Chaney. On May 21, 2008 Ed sent a letter to Gerald Stansbury of the Maryland NAACP that refutes the spin Johns Hopkins has been spewing regarding this case. This letter is an incredibly useful and detailed summary of the case against Class A BS. It is long, it is well referenced, and it is worth reading. It presents not only the technical issues but also a lot of the EPA dirty dealings. You can get Ed’s letter here. (Thanks, Jo.)

Of course, Ed doesn’t do all of this work himself. He has an obviously very effective team of colleagues and staff working together to produced these results. In addition, a lot of the data and facts they use have been compiled by sludge warriors up and down the east coast. But some person or persons over at Decker Hallman have made some brilliant strategic decisions. Like taking the Johns Hopkins case to the NAACP and perhaps getting them on board. And like going after the EPA, USDA, and University of Ga. instead of facing off with the well-heeled industry-players. And the best is yet to come.

Tags: Players, Litigation, EPA, Spin, States, Maryland //