Sludge Watch ==> Sludge May Move From Bakersfield to Arizona- Lawyer predicts LA v Kern will fail

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Right on, lawyer-guy.  Right now most of the sludge that is land applied in 
Arizona comes from toilets and industries in California.  Since most 
counties in California have passed stringent requirements for the management 
of sewage sludge (Class A, EQ, sniff test, permits, etc), sludges from many 
cities in Southern California have hit the highway.  California sludge heads 
to little towns like Brenda (find the town, I dare you) on the west side of 
the state, or over to Buckeye just west of Phoenix where the sludging 
requirements are less onerous than most of California.

Even  rural California counties like Imperial (El Centro) send their 
air-dried lagooned sludge over to California to spread, since they won't 
allow sludge to be spread in their agricultural district.  Way too 
disgusting and dangerous to spread it on Imperial County crops.  Ok to 
spread it on someone else's crops?

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


http://www.mayitpleasethecourt.com/journal.asp?blogid=1282

May it please the court....

Sludge May Move From Bakersfield To Arizona

Kern County voters are upset with Los Angeles' crap.  Literally on both 
counts.  The residents voted to ban Los Angeles from shipping its sewage 
sludge to Kern County for use on farm fields.

Not to be dissuaded, LA did what any law-abiding City would do.  It sued.

That's right, and to ensure victory, LA filed here in Los Angeles.  You can 
bet the first motion Kern County files will be for a change of venue to move 
the case Kern County.  The home-court advantage part of the lawsuit will 
likely be the most contested aspect of the litigation.  LA claims that it 
spent $16 million to upgrade its sewage system to make the sludge acceptable 
to spread on farms in Kern County, one of which is owned by the City of LA 
and named Green Acres, of all things.

MIPTC predicts the lawsuit will fail.  Judges don't like to overturn voter 
referendums unless there's been some type of misrepresentation made to the 
voters, which is unlikely in this case.  After all, how hard is it to vote 
to ban LA from shipping its _ _ _ _ (fill in your own appropriate, 
four-letter word here) to Kern County.  I can't imagine any 
misrepresentations in that voter pamphlet.  I guess you could refer to it as 
the "bull _ _ _ _" test.

Now, though, LA is prepared to ship its _ _ _ _ (yep, just go right ahead 
and use that same, four-letter word again here) to Arizona.  At least there 
it will dry out faster.

   Posted by J. Craig Williams on Sunday, August 20, 2006 at 12:57