A key group has weighed in on Senate Bill 1413, a bill that was initially created to protect the rights of farmers, but which some consider a limitation on the power of local government.

The Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors announced last week its opposition to the bill, which some think would make it harder for communities to stop the dumping of treated municipal waste product on fields as fertilizer.

Local concerns over the Senate bill arose when Allegheny County Sanitary Authority dumped the waste last month on about 800 acres of a Franklin Road farm in Jackson Township, causing residents to worry about the effect on their backyards. The treated waste can be classified as an "agricultural product."

The bill, which was co-sponsored by state Sen. Robert D. "Bob" Robbins, Salem Township, R-50th District, was initially created to protect large scale agricultural businesses from so-called nuisance lawsuits. But several state associations, including the Pennsylvania Farmers Union and the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, have expressed concerns over the expansion of the bill to include taking away power from municipalities.

The bill's expansion includes prohibiting local ordinances from "unfairly" discriminating against any agricultural operations. It would penalize anyone who files a nuisance lawsuit, including local governments, by authorizing courts to charge court costs and attorneys' fees to the losers in a dispute.

At the end of May, Elam Herr, assistant executive director of the township association, said that if the bill wasn't amended "we couldn't stay neutral."

Robbins attended a Jackson Township supervisors meeting on June 5, where he said the bill neither prohibits dumping nor provides for it, but reaffirms the farm's right to farm and the present Pennsylvania law.

The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau supports the bill.

"Opponents of Senate Bill 1413 have attempted to justify their opposition by a bizarre argument that enactment of the bill will prohibit municipalities from regulating land application of sludge within their borders. This argument is completely false," said Mel Eckhaus, Farm Bureau state legislative director. "Senate Bill 1413 amends the Right to Farm law and the Right to Farm Law only. . . (The bill) does not place on local governments any additional restrictions in their regulatory authority than what state laws currently place upon them."

The bill, which was approved by the state Senate, was awaiting consideration by the House of Representatives in June, but state Rep. Rod E. Wilt, Sugar Grove Township, R-17th District, said the bill has been stalled because the House Republican caucus has problems with it.

The bill began its life as Senate Bill 826, which was specifically aimed at a handful of township governments which had adopted ordinances dealing with factory farms and sewage sludge. Senate co-sponsors renumbered and re-introduced the bill following the growth of opposition to the legislation, according to the township association.