PLAN TO CUT CONTAMINATION SANITATION OFFICIALS TO CHANGE POLICY ON SPREADING SEWAGE EFFLUENT.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Looking to reduce contaminants in well water, Los Angeles County sanitation officials plan to reduce their practice of spreading treated sewage effluent on barren Palmdale airport land.

Instead, they want to use it to water alfalfa or other nonfood crops and are exploring methods for removing algae from the effluent so it could be used to irrigate golf courses and landscaping.

``The big goal is to transition from land application where you spread on bare land to agriculture use,'' said Steve Highter, Los Angeles County Sanitation District 20's supervising engineer for facilities planning. ``We are looking at watering fodder crops, crops that aren't consumed by people.''

The problem is nitrate concentrations and dissolved solids that can be found in groundwater beneath the sanitation district's Palmdale spreading grounds, which are on Los Angeles World Airports land east of Air Force Plant 42.

The district's east Palmdale sewage plant takes in sewage from businesses and homes of 150,000 people - about 14 million gallons of effluent a day.

High nitrate levels in water are a primary health concern to infants, in whom nitrates can severely restrict the blood's ability to carry oxygen - the ``blue baby'' syndrome.

Nitrates in well water are a common problem in small communities that get water from wells and rely on septic tanks for their sewage. Much of Littlerock, for example, was under a subdivision moratorium from 1989 to 1999 because of high nitrate levels. Littlerock's highest nitrate concentrations were more than eight times the level tested below the Palmdale spreading grounds, records show.

Contaminants in the water below the spreading ground since 1999 have tested below the state cleanup level of 10 milligrams per liter. In 2000, however, the state's Lahontan Regional Water Quality Board directed the sanitation district to come up with a plan to lessen its Palmdale sewage treatment plant's impact on groundwater.

``Ground water well data indicates that ground water quality beneath the LAWA site has been degraded by a combination of the district's and adjacent commercial farming operations,'' Hisam Baqai, supervising engineer for Lahontan's Victorville office, wrote in a report for the Lahontan board. ``The district recognizes that land spreading of sewage effluent has resulted in ground water quality degradation and will continue to affect the ground water.''

As part of its plan, the district plans to use effluent for farming on a one square mile area bordered by Avenues O and P and 50th and 60th streets east.

``By this time next year we hope to be seeing something like alfalfa growing growing out there,'' Highter said

The district already does use some effluent for agricultural use. About 89,000 gallons a day of effluent are used to irrigate trees and barley.

Plans for the algae removal from the effluent in oxidation ponds have not been defined. The district is looking at possible technologies to do that work, but haven't found a viable option.

By removing the algae the district hopes to cut the nitrogen in the effluent by 25 percent.

If it can effectively remove the algae, the district plans to disinfect and dechlorinate the effluent so that it can be used for irrigation of landscaping, such as watering golf courses. The district is planning to use as much as 5 million gallons a day for such use by 2009.