[USCC] L.A. files suit over Biosolids ban in Kern County

[McNelly, Patrick]

8/25/06

City wants to force Kern County to keep taking its treated human waste
By NOAKI SCHWARTZ

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Green Acres is a farm where corn stalks grow twice as tall
as men and wheat sprouts lush and green. Green Acres is also Los
Angeles' outhouse.

Every year, this city trucks ton after ton of sludgy human waste to be
spread as ''commercial grade fertilizer'' on several thousand Central
Valley acres it owns.

Residents in agricultural Kern County voted this summer to stop
accepting these exports from the sprawling metropolis to their south.
Now, if Los Angeles has its way, a federal judge will order that Green
Acres continue to receive 65 million gallons of treated waste each year
-- enough to fill a toilet the size of an Olympic swimming pool every
four days.

''The Kern ban discriminates against biosolids and those engaged in
commerce with it,'' contends a lawsuit the city filed earlier this month
that demands the revocation of a voter initiative which by year's end
would slap violators with fines and even jail time.

The legal battle reflects a decades-old problem that has dogged Los
Angeles and other large cities: What to do with all that waste? For
years, biosolids flowed from waste water treatment plants into the
ocean, sparking nasty legal battles with conservationists who said that
choked the area's marine life.

Finally, in 2000, Los Angeles leaders thought they had found an elegant
solution -- spread the treated waste over a 4,700-acre farm the city
bought for nearly $10 million about 15 miles south of Bakersfield.

The biosolids, which are strictly regulated, help grow corn, wheat and
alfalfa. Those crops are packaged as cattle feed. Cows produce milk that
can be sold in stores.

And so Green Acres was hailed a success story, winning awards from the
Environmental Protection Agency and others -- including one for a public
information video called ''Where Does it Go?'' The farm's Web site shows
pictures of red trucks trundling across lush green fields of vegetation.

''We thought we found a responsible solution,'' said Cynthia M. Ruiz,
president of the Board of Public Works.

Residents of Kern County, one of the nation's most productive farming
regions, think the solution stinks.

A group called Keep Kern Clean rallied around the slogan ''Send the
sludge packing!'' accompanied by what looked like a dejected slug that
packed a frown and a suitcase. A more pointed photo shows a two-story
outhouse: the top door is labeled ''L.A. County,'' the bottom ''Kern
County.''

Some worried the sludge would pollute groundwater. Others were convinced
it would hurt Kern's economy.

''Obviously the biosolids aren't being used on edible crops, but I think
the concern is very real that people would not be able to make the
distinction,'' said Barbara Patrick, chairwoman of Kern's Board of
Supervisors.

In June, Kern residents overwhelmingly approved a bill that would stop
Los Angeles from trucking over the Tehachapi Mountains all but a
fraction of its treated biosolids.

''We shouldn't allow L.A. to become the greenest and cleanest city in
America at the expense of our own,'' said Dean Florez, D-Shafter, an
ardent opponent of Los Angeles ''sludge peddlers.''

In response, Los Angeles filed a lawsuit that gives a shine to the
unsavory facts of the case. The city was joined by Los Angeles and
Orange counties, trucking companies and a farm that relies on the
biosolids called Honey Bucket Farms.

The suit accuses Kern's initiative of discriminating against Los
Angeles' ''nutrient-rich organic materials.''

It also argues that trucking the biosolids to more distant areas -- one
alternative suggested sending the payload to Arizona -- would use more
fuel and create more air pollution.

Still, city officials and others involved in the lawsuit are scrambling
for alternatives. According to the Kern law, if Los Angeles can show
''hardship,'' officials can get an extension on a ban which would go
into effect in December.

The most promising option, announced in an awkwardly worded press
release, is to inject ''exceptional quality biosolids'' under Terminal
Island, a man-made land mass at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Asked why the city couldn't use more of its superior product on its own
lawns and golf courses, as suggested by some Kern residents, Public
Works President Ruiz said that was attempted once.

''We tried to sell compost from some of our green waste, and couldn't
find a market for it,'' she said.

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