Sludge Watch ==> "Green Acres" is What LA calls 254, 000 Tons of Sewage Sludge Spread in Kern

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

September 5, 2006

“Green Acres” is What Los Angeles Calls 254,000 Tons of Sewage Sludge Dumped 
and Spread in Kern County


http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2006/09/green_acres_is.html
By Frank Pecarich

My usual concern about media and propaganda has centered on the topic of 
exaggerations the media has made concerning the real estate economy in the 
US over the past 4 or 5 years.

Overshadowing that specific symptom -- housing -- of media manipulation is 
the general topic of the free-market economics model of media leading 
inevitably to narrow reporting. I have another closer to home example to 
suggest as prima facie evidence that the media is controlled by corporate as 
well as political interests.

The new topic for this discussion is that of sewage sludge and its safe 
disposal. Specifically we're talking about 33% of the sewage sludge 
generated within the State of California which mostly comes from Los Angeles 
and Orange County with assorted other municipal wastes thrown in. This 
sewage sludge for years now has been trucked from southern California over 
the Grapevine pass into Kern County and dumped on agricultural fields there. 
There are approximately 10,000 acres of farmland where the sewage sludge is 
dumped and spread, not the least of which is the City of Los Angeles' own 
4,688 acre farm in Kern County where they spread just under 254,000 tons of 
sewage sludge in 2005. They -- The City of LA -- ironically has named this 
cess pool "farm" "Green Acres". Cities the sewage sludge comes from for LA 
City's "Green Acre" farm include Los Angeles, Burbank, Glendale, Santa 
Monica, El Segundo, Beverly Hills, Culver City, San Fernando, and West 
Hollywood. The city of Los Angeles trucks 99.9 percent of its treated sewage 
sludge to it's farm south of Bakersfield.

Tiring of this pollution from Southern California, Kern County voters in 
June passed an initiative -- Measure E -- banning the importation of sewage 
sludge into Kern County. The vote was 83% in favor of the ban. It stops the 
practice of spreading treated human and industrial sewage sludge on Kern 
county farmland.

The toxic nature of sewage sludge is well known and is fast becoming a topic 
of concern nationally and internationally. The subject is also rife with 
industrial and political intrigue as $ millions annually are involved. For a 
scientific treatment of the topic including an analysis of the political and 
industrial bias issues, I refer you to Dr, Caroline Synder's recent article 
in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health.

On or about August 14, the news came forth that the City of LA's City 
Council and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa passed a measure to appropriate money 
to hire law firms and sue the County of Kern for this action of blocking 
imported sewage sludge. The city of Los Angeles filed the suit along with a 
coalition of other sewage agencies and private-industry sludge interests. 
The suit names Kern County and the Board of Supervisors as defendants.

In a press release, State Senator Dean Florez (Shafter CA) had this to say:

"Upon learning that the City of Los Angeles has filed suit to overturn Kern 
County’s voter-approved ban on the land application of sewage sludge, State 
Senator Dean Florez, D-Shafter, called on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to live 
up to his own claims of being a “green” mayor. Florez, who spearheaded 
efforts to prevent treated human waste -- euphemistically known as 
“biosolids” – from being spread on land above sensitive groundwater 
reserves, pointed out the hypocrisy of Villaraigosa saying he’s “committed 
to making LA the greenest big city in America” (SF Chronicle blog, 08-01-06) 
when he does so at the expense of his neighbors to the north in Kern 
County."

Subsequent to this there have been two major articles written and picked up 
both nationally and internationally including the UK's Guardian. Other than 
an initial piece on August 16, the LA Times as well as key surrounding -- 
geographically -- publications have been virtually silent on this topic. 
Today the New York Times published a lengthy article entitled "Los Angeles 
and Farm Area Duel Over Disposal of Waste" on the entire subject.

Can anyone tell me why the LA Times appears to be embargoing this story? 
Could it be that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is considered to be a future 
Democratic candidate for Governor? I ask rhetorically, could that possibly 
be a reason for not covering the story -- a story that appears to appeal to 
readers as far away from LA as London?

It's disgusting really... No wonder this quote seems appropriate:
... the 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great 
political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate 
power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting 
corporate power against democracy.

Australian social scientist, quoted by Noam Chomsky in World Orders Old and 
New

Frank Pecarich is a resident of Ventura County