Sludge Watch ==> Liberal Mayor of Los Angeles in bed with polluters No1 Attorney

[Maureen Reilly]

"Especially, he added, since one of the law firms hired by the city, 
Beveridge & Diamond, P.C., has often represented industry giant Synagro 
Technologies Inc..

"I never thought I'd live to see the day when a liberal mayor of Los 
Angeles would be in bed with the polluters' No. 1 attorney," Florez
said.
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L.A.-led suit fights Kern sludge ban

BY GRETCHEN WENNER, Californian staff writer
e-mail: gwenner at bakersfield.com | Tuesday, Aug 15 2006 10:15 PM

Last Updated: Tuesday, Aug 15 2006 10:23 PM
A massive legal challenge to Kern's voter-approved ban on sewage sludge
was 
filed Tuesday in a Los Angeles County federal courthouse.
A dozen lawyers spanning both coasts and representing eight plaintiffs
want 
to topple Kern County's new law prohibiting sludge application on local 
farmland.
The legal challenge is being led by the city of Los Angeles, which
trucks 
more than 99 percent of its treated human and industrial sewage sludge
here. A coalition of other sewage agencies and private-sector sludge
interests 
have joined in.
The lawsuit was expected, supporters of the ban say.
It again makes Kern County -- where a third of the state's sludge ends
up 
-- ground zero for such struggles nationwide as rural locales try to
buck a 
steady flow of incoming urban waste.
Goliath overkill?
"Just the number of people piling on: It's as if we have threatened the 
only way they can dispose of this stuff inexpensively," said Bernard 
Barmann, Kern County's top lawyer.
Barmann's office will represent the defendants -- the county and its
five 
supervisors.
Supervisors gave routine approval allowing the initiative, Measure E, to

appear on Kern's June 6 ballot. It passed with more than 83 percent
"yes" 
votes.
The measure bans land application of sewage sludge on unincorporated
land 
here.
Southern California sewage districts, which last year trucked about
470,000 
wet tons of sludge over the Grapevine to Kern, had about six months
after 
the vote to wind down operations.
Barmann said he might hire an outside attorney from San Diego to help
with 
the case.
But his lawyers have plenty of sludge expertise after more than a dozen 
years of legal battles, Barmann said, and Tuesday's lawsuit brings
nothing 
new.
"The state court after 13 years has addressed most of the issues, if not

all," he said.
He believes the suit may have been filed in federal court because the 
plaintiffs "are afraid of the state courts."
A state appellate court in Fresno last year issued a decision affirming 
Kern's right to govern its own turf.
"They're trying to find a forum where they can re-litigate a lot of
these 
issues," Barmann said.
David Price III, who oversees several Kern County departments that
permit 
and regulate sludge, called the suit "a rehash of issues that have
already 
been litigated."
"These guys are driving me crazy with this," he said.
The Los Angeles city attorney has OK'd spending $850,000 for outside 
lawyers.
Legal firms include "three high-powered entities going all the way to 
Washington (D.C.) ... all to gang up on Kern County," Price said.
Representatives from the Los Angeles city attorney's office and its 
sanitation bureau referred calls Tuesday to media representatives from
the 
public works department.
Cora Jackson-Fossett, chief spokeswoman for the department, said
everything 
the city had to say was in the lawsuit.
A bad rep?
Some big names in local agriculture have long been irked by Kern's 
reputation as a sludge-dumping spot.
"Spreading sewage sludge negatively impacts the marketability of crops
for 
the entire area," said Jeff Green, general counsel for carrot giant 
Grimmway Farms.
Paul Giboney, an anti-sludge soil scientist with M. Caratan Inc. in
Delano 
and a member of a coalition of farming interests named Kern Food Growers

Against Sewage Sludge, has for years spoken out about possible threats
to 
local groundwater supplies.
And Jim Beck, general manager of the Kern County Water Agency -- which
may 
have triggered the latest round of sludge wars by asking sewage
districts 
to apply the stuff far away from Kern's ultra-valuable groundwater banks
-- 
said there are plenty of significant questions about long-term impacts
of 
sludge application on farmland.
Critics worry about tens of thousands of industrial chemicals, heavy 
metals, pharmaceuticals and other substances in the sludge. Sludge
proponents nevertheless consistently tout the material's "benefits" 
for the locales receiving it, such as soil nutrients.
Tuesday's lawsuit not only repeats the "beneficial reuse" mantra, but
goes 
farther by claiming Kern will suffer "numerous environmental detriments"
if 
the sludge stream stops.
The Kern-as-lucky-recipient idea plays poorly with state Sen. Dean
Florez, 
the Shafter Democrat who spearheaded the sludge initiative after 
legislative attempts to fix the problem failed.
Florez previously has bristled at what he calls Los Angeles' "paternal" 
attitude toward Kern County.
The lawsuit underscores hypocrisy among city officials in "green" Los 
Angeles, Florez said, including the city's mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa.
Especially, he added, since one of the law firms hired by the city, 
Beveridge & Diamond, P.C., has often represented industry giant Synagro 
Technologies Inc..
"I never thought I'd live to see the day when a liberal mayor of Los 
Angeles would be in bed with the polluters' No. 1 attorney," Florez
said.
 
http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/67954.html
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