KERN DOESN'T WANT LOS ANGELES' SLUDGE.Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer Kern County officials want to prohibit Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, cities from shipping sewage sludge to San Joaquin Valley Noun 1. San Joaquin Valley - a vast valley in central California known for its rich farmland Calif., California, Golden State, CA - a state in the western United States on the Pacific; the 3rd largest state; known for earthquakes farms - a ban that could cost Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. and its neighbors three times more to dispose of To determine the fate of; to exercise the power of control over; to fix the condition, application, employment, etc. of; to direct or assign for a use. See also: Dispose treated human waste. The ban would force Los Angeles and neighboring cities to find other ways to reuse or dispose of biosolids biosolids Sewage sludge, the residues remaining from the treatment of sewage. For use as a fertilizer in agricultural applications, biosolids must first be stabilized through processing, such as digestion or the addition of lime, to reduce concentrations of heavy metals and left over after the sewage treatment Sewage treatment Unit processes used to separate, modify, remove, and destroy objectionable, hazardous, and pathogenic substances carried by wastewater in solution or suspension in order to render the water fit and safe for intended uses. process. Los Angeles has a backup plan to haul the black muck to Arizona, but that would cost $21 million a year - three times more than it spends to haul the material to the Green Acres Farm it owns near the rural community of Taft. ``The people of Kern County are fed up with being the toilet of Los Angeles,'' said Supervisor Michael Rubio, who has led the push to ban Southland sludge. ``There are no guarantees that biosolids will not contaminate con·tam·i·nate v. 1. To make impure or unclean by contact or mixture. 2. To expose to or permeate with radioactivity. con·tam·i·nant n. our groundwater.'' But Los Angeles officials say the practice is safe and cost-effective. ``We are very saddened that the issue has come back to the table because the practice has not caused any environmental impact,'' said Diane Gilbert, the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation's biosolids regulatory liaison. Kern's proposed ban comes as Los Angeles sanitation officials consider whether to truck residential trash to dumps outside the city limits, rather than extending the contract to use Sunshine Canyon Landfill in Granada Hills, which neighbors oppose. A proposal by one waste hauler to dump L.A.'s trash in the Lancaster Landfill has met with opposition from leaders in the Antelope Valley, who argue that Los Angeles needs to take care of its own waste. But Gilbert said Los Angeles must look beyond its own limits to dispose of waste - both biosolids and trash - because land is increasingly limited and permitting is increasingly difficult in the densely populated urban areas. ``When we look at these different programs, we're not saying we're going to take it to different counties. We look at what's available and what's going to meet the needs of our ratepayers and what's the most environmentally friendly practice.'' But Kern leaders argue that the city's sewage sludge applications are environmentally unsound unsound said of an animal, usually a horse, which has been examined for soundness and found to be unsatisfactory. . Los Angeles is spreading biosolids on land atop a vast groundwater basin that supplies drinking water drinking water supply of water available to animals for drinking supplied via nipples, in troughs, dams, ponds and larger natural water sources; an insufficient supply leads to dehydration; it can be the source of infection, e.g. leptospirosis, salmonellosis, or of poisoning, e.g. to the south San Joaquin Valley and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is the largest bulk water supplier for municipal use in the world. The name is usually shortened to the "Metropolitan Water District" or simply "MWD". . After a decade of debating the safety of sewage sludge, the Kern County Board of Supervisors The examples and perspective in this article or section may represent an unduly geographically limited view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. The Board of Supervisors is the body governing counties in the U.S. voted earlier this month to pursue a ban on imported biosolids. Before a ban can be imposed, however, the county must complete an environmental impact report - a process expected to take at least a year. In the meantime Adv. 1. in the meantime - during the intervening time; "meanwhile I will not think about the problem"; "meantime he was attentive to his other interests"; "in the meantime the police were notified" meantime, meanwhile , state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, has introduced legislation that would stop the importation of biosolids across county lines. His bill has widespread support in Kern County, but Mayor James Hahn and the City Council last week voted to oppose it and consider asking the City Attorney's Office to initiate a lawsuit, if necessary. Los Angeles is fighting to save millions of dollars invested in its biosolids program. The city spent $20 million in sewage treatment improvements and $13 million more to buy and improve the 4,688-acre Green Acres Farm in Kern County. Since 2003, all of the city's 260,000 tons per year of treated sewage sludge has been used as a fertilizer to grow nonedible crops. Previously, city biosolids were sent to Kern and Riverside counties after the federal government prohibited cities from pumping raw sewage into the ocean. In the late 1990s, Kern leaders became concerned about a growing number of sludge farms popping up around the rural county and required producers to upgrade from Class B to Class A biosolids, which are treated to reduce pathogens to nondetectable levels. Southland sanitation agencies sued, and earlier this month a state appeals court in Fresno upheld Kern's Class A requirement, but said the county should have prepared a lengthy environmental impact report first. In response, Kern leaders voted to pursue an all-out ban. On another front, the Kern County Water Agency is pushing Southland cities to move their biosolids operations off the region's vast groundwater basin, which stretches for nearly a million acres. The basin is used to store water for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and has a net worth of about $10 trillion. Senior Water Resources Planner Lloyd Fryer believes it's only a matter of time before heavy metals heavy metals, n.pl metallic compounds, such as aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, and nickel. Exposure to these metals has been linked to immune, kidney, and neurotic disorders. , pharmaceuticals or other contaminants appear in the groundwater if the biosolids applications continue. ``We're looking at the potential ruination of the groundwater basin sometime in the future.'' The water agency has sought proposals from companies in Kings County and Arizona that do not sit atop groundwater resources and hopes to persuade Los Angeles and its neighbors to take their biosolids elsewhere. Kerry Cavanaugh, (818) 713-3746 kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): map Map: LOS ANGELES' BIOSOLIDS FARM |
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