SEWAGE IRRIGATION FEARED EFFLUENT OPPOSED NEAR EASTSIDE SCHOOL.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick and Karen Maeshiro Staff Writers

LANCASTER - Eastside school trustees have come out against Los Angeles County sanitation officials' controversial proposal to buy more than 4,100 acres for growing alfalfa irrigated by treated sewage water.

Responding to concerns from nearby residents who fear that farming with the effluent would spread disease and contaminate their wells, Eastside trustees said county officials should do further study into treating the effluent sufficiently to use it for replenishing groundwater.

The resolution emphasizes that the board ``does not support'' the current proposal to use treated effluent to irrigate alfalfa on more than 4,100 acres that the county would buy between 50th and 100th streets east from Avenue G north to the Edwards Air Force Base boundary.

``Our deal is: Don't put this out by our school,'' Eastside Union School District Superintendent Colleen Larson said. ``We have a well and have kids out there. The wind is horrendous. Anything that's lying on the ground can be picked up and lifted, not to mention germs and bacteria, the smell and flies, and all that.''

There are more than 70 homes in the area, and Eastside Elementary School is a mile away on Avenue H.

County officials already have begun the process of purchasing more than 600 acres of the 4,100.

``The main concern is that it could contaminate our wells, and when winds kick up there are encapsulated viruses that the sun can't destroy, and also bacteria that, once the wind picks up, it's airborne, and it could endanger students as well as staff,'' Larson said.

Eastside resident Ronald Ferrell, 62, said he favors treating the wastewater to the point it can be used on golf courses, parks and other area.

The school board resolution supports looking into the possibility of building more sewage-treatment facilities that could provide a third stage or tertiary level of removing contaminants and germs.

``We want to see them clean the water so it can be used safely,'' Ferrell said.

At issue is what to do with millions of gallons of sewage daily from Lancaster homes and businesses. Within three years, the amount is expected to exceed the capacity of the treatment plant on Avenue D.

In addition, the Los Angeles County Sanitation District 14 - which runs the plant - is facing a state deadline next year to stop its treated water from overflowing into Rosamond Dry Lake, which is Edwards Air Force Base property.

The spillovers have been a periodic source of contention between the Air Force and the district since the 1960s.

A final environmental impact report on four versions of the irrigation proposal is expected to be released in mid-April for an April 27 vote by the district's three-member board, which includes Lancaster Mayor Frank Roberts, Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford and county Supervisor Don Knabe.

Sanitation officials said the plant-expansion proposal released last year already calls for expanding tertiary treatment capacity as well as using treated sewage on public landscaping in Lancaster. The third-stage treatment typically uses sand and gravel to filter effluent that has already gone through other treatment.

In addition, officials are considering disinfecting the treated effluent, as is already done with chlorine on the tertiary-treated effluent that fills nearby Apollo Park's lakes, said Sagar Raksit, a supervising engineer with the county sanitation districts.

``We can produce whatever quality of (treated) water needed. It's a matter of cost. The community has to decide,'' Raksit said.

But officials said Lancaster produces so much sewage it can't all be used on street medians or freeway landscaping, so they need to use it to irrigate farmland as well. Alfalfa was identified as the crop because people don't eat it.

County officials said they at one point looked into using the effluent to replenish groundwater but dropped the idea.

The area's soil is predominantly clay, and water spread onto it does not readily sink into the groundwater table, officials said. Piping water to the nearest place where it could sink in, officials said, would mean pumping it 20 miles or more uphill to an area such as the upper reaches of Little Rock Wash.

Another option would be to inject water directly down wells, but that would require much more treatment. Even California Aqueduct water can't be injected directly underground, officials said.

Sanitation officials' preferred option - providing tertiary treatment of about 40 percent of the waste, using the rest for irrigation on 4,100 acres of alfalfa, and buying an additional 1,100 acres for storage ponds - was projected to cost $163 million.

Officials have said Lancaster homeowners' treatment fees could more than double, from $67 to $164 a year under the preferred option.

``My main concern is we appropriately treat the water that will be spread or otherwise applied in that region to a point where it won't concern those folks (who) will be surrounded by that water application,'' Roberts said. ``We'll go beyond the raw effluent treatment.''

But he said providing more treatment would raise the price tag further.

``It's all going to send the ratepayers additional costs, all these things,'' Roberts said.

Charles F. Bostwick, [phone]

chuck.bostwick(at)dailynews.com