Hypocrites on sludge? Cities say no

Hypocrites on sludge? Cities say no
Kern towns spread own biosolids, but dealing with outside stuff different, they say
By VIC POLLARD, Californian Sacramento Bureau
e-mail: vpollard@bakersfield.com

Posted: Thursday March 24th, 2005, 11:05 PM
Last Updated: Thursday March 24th, 2005, 11:29 PM

More and more outlying cities in Kern County are calling for a total ban on Southern California sewage sludge being spread on local farmland.
What those cities aren't talking about is that they do exactly the same thing with their own sludge.

That upsets the sewage agencies to the south, who say they are being victimized by a double standard.

"The biosolids that are generated within the county are able to be land-applied," said David Hyde, an attorney for sanitation districts in Los Angeles County.

That is one of the issues the urban agencies are pressing in a lawsuit attempting to overturn a partial ban on imports already adopted by the county.

However, city and county officials say local treatment plants produce a small fraction of the amount being trucked into Kern. They have no qualms about doing what they want Southern California to do: Keep the stuff at home.

Like a political wildfire, local cities are rushing to endorse a bill by state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, that would ban the shipment of biosolids, as sludge is more politely known, across county lines.

It has drawn support from councils in Taft, Delano, Tehachapi, Wasco, Shafter and Arvin.

The Bakersfield council and the county Board of Supervisors have not yet taken a position.

The bill would dam the rising river of sludge being trucked into Kern County from the Los Angeles region.

Officials are increasingly concerned about potential pollution from the practice of spreading the sludge over farmland as fertilizer. It can't be used on food crops, but there is concern that it could contaminate precious underground drinking water supplies.

Several years ago, Kern County banned all but the most highly treated sludge from being spread on private farmland outside city limits.

Most of the sludge coming out of local city treatment plants is of lower quality, with a higher pollution potential. And the cities spread it on farmland within their boundaries, avoiding a clash with the county restriction.

But most local officials make a sharp distinction between the few thousand tons of biosolids they produce each year and the half million tons being carted over the Tehachapi Mountains annually.

Even county Supervisor Michael Rubio, an opponent of imported sewage and a supporter of the Florez bill, said the locally produced sludge is a secondary problem.

"There's no question that we need to do something about our biosolids, compost it or something, but it's hard to do that when you're focusing on the huge amounts coming in from Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties," Rubio said.

Nevertheless, the county's Resource Management Agency director, David Price III, said the cities' practice of spreading lower-quality biosolids on farmland conflicts with county policy.

"We decided we wanted only the highest-treated material," Price said. "But we don't have any authority over the cities, so as a result, they have to make their own decisions."

Price said the county could take enforcement action against a city that was disposing of low-quality sludge on private land in unincorporated areas, but he knows of none that are.

Officials of cities who could be contacted Thursday said they are spreading the material on farmland within their boundaries.

Bakersfield produces about 2,000 tons of lower-quality sludge annually, said its public works chief, Raul Rojas. It is spread on a 5,000-acre city-owned farm in southeast Bakersfield.

But Rojas said the amount of sewage produced by Bakersfield and other local cities does not pose a significant pollution threat.

"The amounts that we have are so minuscule compared to what is coming in," he said. "It's hardly anything."

Other cities have similar situations.

* Delano, which also produces lower-quality sludge, spreads it on city-owned land it leases to a farmer who grows alfalfa on it, said interim Public Works Director John Wankum.

* Taft puts out about 50 tons a year that is composted to a higher quality that can used on private farmland in the county, and is, according to Gary Dabbs, the public works director.

Dabbs echoed other local officials who insisted their sludge disposal practices don't conflict with the import ban proposed in Sacramento.

"I think what the Florez bill is trying to do is stop the importation," Dabbs said. "Obviously your sludge has got to go somewhere."

http://www.bakersfield.com/local/story/5386978p-5403390c.html