Sludge Watch ==> www.epa.gov/region09/water/groundwater/uic- permits.html

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

June 6, 2006 Tuesday

City News Service

SAN PEDRO


     The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is giving the public 45 days 
to comment on a proposed permit to inject human waste solids into the ground 
beneath the Terminal Island Treatment Plant.

The proposed permit would allow the city of Los Angeles inject up to 400 
tons per day of so-called biosolids into a well it would drill deep below 
the San Pedro plant, according to the EPA.
The proposal is an alternative to the city's current practice of spreading 
its biosolids as fertilizer on Kern County fields where non-food crops are 
grown. The city trucks about 500 tons of treated waste each day to Kern 
County, EPA officials said.

According to the EPA, the proposed injections would not affect drinking 
water supplies.
In addition to the well that would hold biosolids, the permit would allow 
for the drilling of two other monitoring wells over a five-year period.

The comment period ends July 19. Detailed information, including the draft 
permit, is available at www.epa.gov/region09/water/groundwater/uic- 
permits.html.

Copies are also available at the EPA's downtown Los Angeles office, and at 
some libraries in the San Pedro area.