Jessica McCoy

Jessica McCoy is a Madison County, Virginia woman who suffers from Cri-du-Chat Syndrome, a rare disease that, among other things, prevents her from walking and talking. Her favorite activity is to sit in the sun on the porch and listen to music. In 2011, when Jessica was 21 years old, a farm near her house applied sewage sludge to its fields. After the sludge was applied, Jessica began hacking when she was outside. Once her mother, Kirsten Kohl, connected Jessica's hacking with the sludge, she stopped letting Jessica stay outside, thus taking away her favorite activity from her. Kohl says the sludge aggravates Jessica's respiratory problems.


 * “I don’t let her stay outside now that I’ve figured it out,” Kohl said. “We have very few limited things that we can do and enjoy and that’s making it so we can’t enjoy our house and environment when they put it (sludge) down because it is airborne and the smell is horrific.”

For Jessica, the sludge presents a real problem, her mother said, and aggravates her respiratory problems. The sludge also impacts Kohl's 75 year old mother, Maria Kohl, an artist who likes to paint outside:


 * "Kohl’s 75-year-old mother, Maria Kohl, also has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, better known as COPD and possible emphysema. She is an artist and likes to paint outside. She can’t do this activity because of the smell and the affect it has on her health.


 * "“The two of them to breathe this besides the fact that it stinks isn’t healthy. There is nothing healthy about it or safe about it,” Kohl said.


 * “How can that be safe for the environment? It’s not logical,” Kohl said."

Kohl adds:


 * “The only people that are saying it’s a fabulous resource that we should all be using are farmers and I just don’t understand how anyone can say processed feces is good considering hormones people are taking, antibiotics, anti-depressants that medically comes out of our waste how can anyone say that is good for us? How can they say it drops through the ground into everyone’s water system? Where else will it go? It has to have a long-lasting effect.”


 * She likens it to asbestos and everyone will look back on this with regret."

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Sewage sludge
 * Biosolids
 * Food Rights Network
 * Sewage Sludge Odor

External articles

 * Marilyn Cox, "Banco mom: Sludge sickens daughter," Madison Eagle, September 14, 2011.