CHAPEL HILL - Orange County will drop plans for a sewage sludge study because it can't find any land to test, the county's environmental health director said Monday

"It's a regrettable outcome," Tom Konsler said. "I think everyone was looking for something to happen with this."

The Orange County Board of Commissioners had approved $10,000 for the pilot study in response to some rural residents' concerns that sludge, also known as biosolids, was making them sick.

The study was to be done with Mark Sobsey, a professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at UNC, and an associate now at N.C. State University. It was intended to be a pilot study leading to a more thorough assessment of air, soil and stream quality before and after application of sludge.

Farmers use sludge, the byproduct of the sewage treatment process, as free fertilizer because it is high in nitrogen and phosphorus. Sludge is also spread on fields where its nutrient content turns grass an emerald green.

"We had two really good sites," Konsler said. But in both cases the farmers changed their minds.

"The farmers were not willing, as they put it, to risk the family farm on what someone might do with the results," he said.

A farmer in northern Orange County offered land for testing, but it did not have suitable topography to test both upstream and downstream of the sludge application field.

The county also approached the Orange Water and Sewer Authority and Durham, which both apply biosolids in the county. OWASA's sludge is classified class A, too highly treated for the purposes of this study, Konsler said, while Durham spreads a dry cake application, also not suited for the pilot program.

Meanwhile, two groups concerned about biosolids -- The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and the Center for Health, and Environment and Justice --will host a community forum from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at Cane Creek Baptist Church Activity Center, 6901 Orange Grove Road in Hillsborough.

The scheduled speakers are

• Stephen Lester, science director for the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, a national nonprofit organization led by Love Canal activist Lois Gibbs assisting communities to prevent, reduce and eliminate exposure to toxic chemicals;

• Elaine Chiosso, Haw Riverkeeper and executive director of the Haw River Assembly, a nonprofit organization founded in 1982 to restore the Haw River and to protect Jordan Lake;

• Ed Hallman, lead attorney with Decker, Hallman, Barber & Briggs, who represented two families in separate lawsuits filed against the City of Augusta, Ga., claiming deaths of dairy cattle and loss of productive farmland as a result of sewage sludge containing hazardous waste spread on their dairy farms;

• Myra Dotson, chairwoman of the newly formed Sewage Sludge Action Network, an Orange County group dedicated to increasing public awareness of the potential risks of sewage sludge on farmlands.

The forum is co-sponsored by the Haw River Assembly, the Sewage Sludge Action Network, and the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association.

mark.schultz@nando.com or 932-2003