Sludge Watch ==> California Senator Rips L.A. Mayor's 'Greenest City' Claims

[Maureen Reilly]

Press Release
California Senator Rips L.A. Mayor's "Greenest City" Claims

Sept 27, 2006

Florez: Villaraigosa's environmental concerns end at city border, while 
neighbors used as dump

BAKERSFIELD -- Senator Dean Florez, D-Shafter, challenged comments made by 
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at a meeting of Labor Party leaders 
while visiting England, where he claimed that Los Angeles will be greenest 
city in world.  Florez wants to know: Green at whose expense?

Florez has led the fight to stop L.A. from spreading treated human waste, 
known as sewage sludge, on Kern County fields.  This past June, the voters 
in Kern overwhelmingly voted to ban the practice, yet the City of Los 
Angeles is suing to overturn the will of the voters.

"Antonio is following the same pattern as past mayors, by shipping their 
environmental problems to neighboring cities.  It's green at someone else's 
expense.  L.A. is spoiling our environment, so Antonio should at least tell 
the world stage that his version of green means throwing your trash, or in 
this case your sewer sludge, at your neighbor," Florez said.

"The City of Los Angeles has trucked millions of tons of sewage sludge, with 
some of the world's most toxic by-products, to spread on Kern County 
farmland.  Congress banned sludge from being dumped in the ocean because of 
it detrimental effects on ocean life, and now we're supposed to believe it 
is safe for farming?  Given the recent spinach E. coli outbreak, does it 
really make sense to spread waste near food crops, with run-off and the 
potential to contaminate groundwater?"

"Maybe I'll take a trip to London to set the record straight," threatened 
Florez.  "The City of L.A. should honor the will of the voters in Kern, get 
their sewage waste out of our community, and drop their lawsuit that is 
costing a poor rural county millions to defend.  It seems that city leaders' 
idea of being green is to dump on their neighbor and when he complains, sue 
him into submission.  I call it 'bullying green' and the mayor should at 
least be honest and take ownership for his part in ruining the environment 
of his neighbor.  'Green only up to the city's boundary' is a shortsighted 
and quiet frankly hypocritical position that the self-proclaimed 'greenest 
mayor' from the 'greenest city in world' should be embarrassed about."