Sludge/Dairy Watch
|
|
|
BY ROBERT PRICE, Californian columnist
In mythological Los Angeles, all swimming pools are 82 degrees, the boy always gets the girl, the air is pure and nobody ever has to use the restroom.
In real life, however, L.A. flushes just like the rest of us. And where does that sewage stream flow? North. That's what Kern County is for.
When Kern voters overwhelmingly agreed to ban the importation of outside sludge in March, L.A.'s leaders were forced to consider new options. We all should have seen it coming, because it was as inevitable as the ending of a sports movie: L.A. called in the lawyers.
They came knocking Tuesday, with court papers intended to overturn Kern's sludge ban, which essentially says of processed sewage: You take care of yours and we'll take care of ours.
L.A.'s leaders, and those in its like-minded environs, can't abide that sort of talk.
Does ownership of a tract of land trump the public's right to deny specific uses because of unresolved concerns? Reasonable people would say no. Increasingly desperate people, infused with a bit of arrogance, might say yes.
What we have here is another skirmish in the battle of the two Californias: urban vs. rural, coastal vs. inland, politically powerful vs. politically marginalized. The two have never been further apart.
Click here for more on the Sludge Battle
Posted on 8/16/06; 9:50:37 AM to the Sludge/Dairy Watch Department Send email to Yellow Dog- Discuss
|
|
|
|
|
Kern’s two imported-sludge farms will stop using treated sewage as fertilizer, Kern County voters overwhelmingly decided Tuesday.
The final results showed 84.6 percent of Kern County voters supported the Measure E, which would ban sewage sludge from being spread on land in unincorporated areas of Kern.
“I think it’s a victory for Kern County residents, obviously,” said state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, a major force behind Measure E.
However overwhelming that victory is, it is unlikely to be the final word on local sludge spreading. Southland sanitation districts have said they will sue to block implementation of any ban.
Posted on 6/7/06; 12:24:04 PM to the Sludge/Dairy Watch Department Send email to Yellow Dog- Discuss
|
|
|
|
|
Strong support for the Kern County measure could force L.A. and others in the state to find new areas to dump tons of treated human waste.
May 2, 2006
BAKERSFIELD — It's a typical day at Green Acres: Rippling fields of wheat await harvest, a cat scampers after field mice and workers unload 750 tons of processed human waste from Los Angeles, fertilizing a quiet revolt in rural Kern County.
Fearful of deteriorating air and water quality, many folks in the New Jersey-size county have about had it with the daily parade of trucks dumping sewage sludge onto their fields. On top of that, they can't stand what is viewed as Los Angeles' imperial attitude, such as recent reports that social workers in Los Angeles County had given homeless people one-way bus tickets to Bakersfield, the largest city in Kern County.
In fact, many residents are simply sick of Los Angeles.
"People genuinely have the feeling that we've got a bully next door, flinging garbage over his fence into our yard," said Paul Giboney, an agronomist for a large family farm and a leading supporter of a proposed sludge ban. "We're not treated with appropriate respect."
Come June 6, the relationship between dumper and dumpee could well change. For the first time, Kern County voters will be asked to ban the use of sewage sludge on farm fields — a watershed decision for a place that takes in one-third of the state's sludge.
Posted on 5/2/06; 8:11:43 AM to the Sludge/Dairy Watch Department Send email to Yellow Dog- Discuss
|
|
|
|
|
Until Kern County voters say no to sludge and YES to Measure E, every man, woman and child who lives here will have to put up with Southern California dumping its human and industrial waste on us.
Why? Because Kern County is the cheapest place for Southern California to dump the chemical and biological-laced goo that is scraped from the bottoms of its sewer plants.
It used to be cheaper to slip into the ocean. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stopped the practice because it harms the fish.
So now truckloads of sludge are hauled to Kern County about 450,000 tons a year where it is dumped, smeared on farm land and called fertilizer.
Kern's vegetable growers call it a threat to the environment and economy. Food processors will not buy crops grown on land where sludge has been applied.
Kern's water experts call it a threat to the area's drinking and irrigation water.
Posted on 4/27/06; 6:38:31 AM to the Sludge/Dairy Watch Department Send email to Yellow Dog- Discuss
|
|
|
|
|
Kern County can expect a lawsuit if voters ban sewage sludge from cropland, according to Responsible Biosolids Management, which operates a local sludge farm and met with The Californian's editorial board Tuesday.
Representatives of the Santa Barbara company addressed the newspaper by conference call, attempting to sway its position on Measure E, Kern's anti-sludge initiative on the June ballot.
The pro-sludge lobby is "prepared and really willing and able to take this up in a legal challenge," said Jon Coffin, president of the company, which runs Green Acres, a 4,700-acre farm that absorbs 99.9 percent of the city of Los Angeles' treated sewage.
The suit will end up costing Kern taxpayers millions in legal fees, he said.
It's a point among many disputed by the opposition, which gathered more than 24,000 signatures -- almost 10,000 more than it needed -- to put its anti-sludge law on the ballot in June.
Measure E would stop treated human and industrial sewage from being used as fertilizer on farmland in unincorporated areas of the county. Currently, Kern uses about a third of California's sewage sludge to grow animal feed. Most of that sludge comes from cities and counties in Southern California.
Farmers, water officials, politicians and residents have mobilized against the use of treated sewage as fertilizer, and leaders made their case to The Californian Tuesday. Sewage sludge contains traces of heavy metals, pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals, and they worry that spreading millions of pounds of it on farmland each day will contaminate soil and groundwater, not to mention ruin Kern's reputation in the consumer food market.
Posted on 4/19/06; 9:01:51 AM to the Sludge/Dairy Watch Department Send email to Yellow Dog- Discuss
|
|
|
|
