SLUDGE CALLED THREAT TO WATER.Byline: Staff and Wire Services SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, - As a state board opens discussions for new regulations on using sewage sludge as farm fertilizer, officials of the Antelope Valley's largest water agency fear sludge could 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. local water wells. Officials of the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency say that any spreading of sludge in the Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley , a closed hydrologic basin, can only increase the opportunity for groundwater contamination and should not be permitted. ``Contamination of the groundwater basin will make the groundwater unusable without special treatment and eliminate the potential for groundwater recharge products,'' AVEK board president Andy Rutledge said in a letter to the state Water Resources Control Board. ``The possibility of groundwater contamination in the Antelope Valley is a serious concern for the agency.'' The Water Resources Control Board will take comments in Santa Clarita today on proposed sludge rules that would be more strict than the federal government's. The workshop will start at 10 a.m. at the Valencia Hyatt Hotel, 24500 Town Center Drive. Another session is scheduled for Thursday in Sacramento. Sewage sludge is a mix of human and industrial waste - 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 - used as fertilizer on nonedible crops. The more expensive Class A biosolids are treated to remove all pathogens while Class B biosolids still contain some pathogens after treatment. State water-protection agencies have regulated the increasing agricultural use of sewage sludge by issuing individual waste-discharge requirements. The state Water Resources Control Board is proposing general requirements based on a new statewide biosolids environmental impact report. The new requirements will come on top of 1993 federal Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and regulations. The plan would allow local governments to continue regulating sewage sludge. The state's proposal also would prohibit sewage-sludge use on some water-saturated and eroding ground, require more soil and groundwater monitoring and tighten storage and transport rules. Last October, 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. adopted an ordinance banning the land application of all but Class A biosolids effective in 2003 to prevent environmental pollution. Six agencies and companies that bring Class B biosolids to Kern fields, including 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. County government and the 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, Alliance of Publicly Owned Treated Works, sued to block the ordinance. The case is pending in Tulare County Superior Court. Critics, including the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency, say the enforcement of regulations by the Regional Water Quality Control Board has been lax. ``The RWQCB RWQCB Regional Water Quality Control Board has not provided a history of effective oversight in the Antelope Valley for the land application of biosolids and currently the RWQCB has inadequate resources for a strong monitoring program,'' the local water agency's letter says. Local agency officials say they believe sludge spread at a west Lancaster farm in the early 1990s leaked into a well, contaminating the water. After sludge application stopped and rainfall levels declined, the well's water quality returned to normal, the letter says. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion