Sludge Watch ==> Oxnard California ok's contract for sludge compost 'fertilizer'

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Municipal Wastewater Sludge does not make good fertilizer...
not pelletized, not composted, not dried, not pasturized, not in a box, not 
with a fox...

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

Oxnard likely to OK sludge contract
Kern County operation can make fertilizer

By Charles Levin, clevin at VenturaCountyStar.com
October 24, 2006

The Oxnard City Council will consider a $2.2 million contract today with a 
compost operation in Kern County to convert leftover wastewater sludge into 
fertilizer.

San Joaquin Composting has been converting the city's sludge — sometimes 
called biosolids — into fertilizer since February after Kern County 
officials revoked Oxnard's permit to operate a sludge facility in the city 
of Wasco.





Under the proposed contract, the city could keep hauling sludge to Kern 
County for processing, apparently circumventing a voter-approved ban on 
biosolids in unincorporated areas of the county.

The item is on the Oxnard council's consent agenda, meaning that it is 
likely to be approved with little or no debate.

Council members will consider adding $320,000 to the city's 2006-07 fiscal 
year budget of roughly $780,000 for biosolids processing, said Grant Dunne, 
a management analyst with the Public Works Department.

The council will also consider awarding a two-year contract to San Joaquin 
Composting starting Nov. 18. The city has an option to extend the contract 
in one-year increments after that, according to a staff report.

Under terms of the contract, San Joaquin Composting would haul the sludge to 
a facility in Lost Hills, where it would be converted to compost and later 
used as fertilizer.

Oxnard produces about 22,000 tons of biosolids a year. Based on San Joaquin 
Composting's rates, a two-year pact could cost the city about $2.2 million, 
according to a staff report.

The contract, however, allows the city to send 50 percent of its sludge in 
the second year to other disposal sites, said Mark Norris, Oxnard's 
wastewater superintendent.

The city is considering taking sludge that year to a proposed conversion 
facility at the Toland Road Landfill near Santa Paula, Norris said.

Oxnard had been hauling sludge to its Wasco farm for 10 years.

The sludge was mixed with an ash compound at the farm to reduce pathogens, 
then used as fertilizer.

In February, however, Kern County regulators cited the city for violating 
public nuisance codes. The amount of ash exceeded county limits.

The city appealed the decision in April, but Kern County lawmakers rejected 
the plea. They fined Oxnard and its farm operator, USA Transport, $25,000 
each. The city removed the ash, meeting a 90-day deadline and avoiding stiff 
financial penalties.

Composting facilities that use biosolids are exempt from Kern County's new 
law as long as the fertilizer is used outside county borders, said Matt 
Constantine, Kern County's director of environmental health.

It's unclear where the fertilizer goes. San Joaquin Composting is owned by 
McCarthy Family Farms Inc. of Bakersfield.

The company operates the world's largest biosolids composting facility and a 
25,000-acre farm in Kings County, according to its Web site.

Company officials were unavailable for comment.





http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/ox/article/0,1375,VCS_238_5089801,00.html