Sludge Watch ==> Los Angeles versus Kern

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Here is the court document .... confirming that LA can continue its waste 
dumping in Kern County until the issues are resolved in the courts.


The court document is attached as a PDF file.

We need to see an environmental impact review of this cheesy haul and dump 
situation.

.........................................

http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/85712.html


L.A. judge again rules against Kern in dispute

BY JAMES BURGER, Californian staff writer
e-mail: jburger at bakersfield.com | Wednesday, Nov 22 2006 9:35 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Nov 22 2006 9:39 PM

Kern County's sludge ban suffered another blow Wednesday from U.S. District 
Court Judge Gary Feess of Los Angeles.

Photos:
Photo by Henry A. Barrios
Trucks dump their loads of biosolids onto land owned by the city of Los 
Angeles in Kern County near Highway 119 and I-5 in this file photo. Kern 
County’s sludge ban suffered another blow Wednesday from U.S. District Court 
Judge Gary Feess of Los Angeles.
Links:
Read the court ruling allowing for sludge to continue being spread in Kern 
County
Last week, Feess issued a tentative ruling that stopped Kern County from 
enforcing the sludge ban while Kern fought off a legal assault from the city 
of Los Angeles, Orange County and the businesses that haul and farm sludge 
for them.

Feess said in court that the Kern ban, enacted as Measure E by local voters 
on June 6, violated state recycling laws.

On Wednesday, Feess issued a formal ruling that upheld those two previous 
decisions.

But this new ruling went further.

Feess also ruled that there are two other reasons the Measure E sludge ban 
is illegal.

He said the sludge ban violates the U.S. Constitution's protections of 
interstate commerce because Los Angeles would likely have to ship its sludge 
to Arizona if Measure E was allowed to take effect.

Feess wrote in his decision that, because the Measure E political campaign 
targeted Los Angeles sludge specifically, it was clear Kern County intended 
to discriminate against Los Angeles' economic trade in sludge.

Feess also ruled that Kern County has overstepped its local government 
"police" powers -- its right to govern itself -- by imposing its needs on 
Los Angeles and Orange County by eliminating their ability to dispose of its 
sludge.

The scientific unknowns about the negative properties of sludge, Feess 
ruled, aren't enough to force Los Angeles and Orange County to spend 
millions of dollars to take their sludge somewhere else.

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