Sludge Watch ==> LA court paves way for sludge - and copy of Judge's Ruling

[Maureen Reilly]

To read the 55 page ruling from the LA judge:
http://static.bakersfield.com/smedia/2007/08/13/17/sludgeruling.source.prod_affiliate.25.pdf

........

http://www.bakersfield.com/hourly_news/story/212212.html

L.A. court paves way for sludge
Popular Measure E on hold for now; Kern may appeal ruling
BY GRETCHEN WENNER, Californian staff writer
e-mail: gwenner at bakersfield.com | Monday, Aug 13 2007 10:40 PM

Last Updated: Monday, Aug 13 2007 10:44 PM

Kern's voter-approved sludge ban stumbled in a Los Angeles federal courtroom 
Monday when a judge overturned a year-old ballot measure meant to stop 
imports of Southern California's treated sewage sludge to local farmland.
PDF:

    * Read the judge's 55-page ruling for yourself

The final ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Gary Allen Feess, for now, 
invalidates Kern's Measure E, which local voters overwhelmingly passed in 
June 2006. The measure stops use of treated sewage sludge as fertilizer on 
unincorporated land in Kern.

Feess' 55-page ruling found Kern had legitimate environmental concerns about 
sludge spreading. But Measure E failed scrutiny under the so-called 
"commerce clause" of the federal Constitution, his ruling says, because it 
did not apply to the whole county and therefore discriminated against Los 
Angeles. (Kern's incorporated cities, which are not subject to county rules, 
are not bound by Measure E.)

The ruling also agreed with sewage generators' assertions that sludge 
spreading falls under state solid waste policies meant to promote recycling.

The latest decision in Kern's decade-old legal battle isn't the end of the 
line, however.

"It's dead only if we give up," said Bernard Barmann, Kern County's top 
lawyer.

County supervisors will decide later this month whether to appeal Feess' 
ruling to the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Barmann said. The board 
will likely discuss the matter in closed session at its Aug. 28 meeting, the 
first date Barmann can put it on the agenda.

"It's too important an issue to let (the ruling) stand," Barmann said.

Outside lawyers helping with Kern's side, including a San Francisco firm 
hired by the Kern County Water Agency, will confer on what to do next, he 
said.

A decision by the appeals court could take two years or so to come down.

In the meantime, Barmann said, the Measure E sludge ban is on hold.

Supervisors could ask the appeals court for an injunction to halt sludge 
imports while the case is being decided, he said.

Monday's ruling didn't surprise sludge opponents, who said Feess' earlier 
rulings indicated he would side with the agencies on his turf.

"This is a judge who probably wears an L.A. Dodgers cap six days out of the 
week," said state Sen. Dean Florez, the Shafter Democrat who spearheaded 
Measure E.

"This is not the right venue for us, period," Florez said.

REACTION

Los Angeles officials, meanwhile, touted the ruling in a news release issued 
by the city shortly after 5 p.m.

"An adverse ruling would have dramatically increased the costs of managing 
biosolids and increased pollution in our environment," Cynthia M. Ruiz, 
president of the city's Board of Public Works, said in the release.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in the release he hoped the 
decision "will permit us to work together to address the best interests" of 
Kern and Los Angeles residents.

The city of Los Angeles trucks about 99 percent of its treated human and 
industrial sewage to a 4,700-acre site south of Bakersfield. Crops grown on 
the so-called Green Acres farm are mostly sold to local dairymen.

Sludge from Orange County, Los Angeles County and other areas is also 
trucked into Kern. Hundreds of thousands of tons of imported sludge are 
disposed of on local farmland each year.

Supporters of the practice call the mudlike end product "biosolids" and 
claim it is an environmentally friendly way to recycle waste.

Opponents, however, say sludge threatens soil and groundwater. Tens of 
thousands of industrial chemicals along with pharmaceutical in the domestic 
supply are concentrated in goo that is applied over and over again to the 
same patches of farmland.

LONG TIME COMING

Land application was promoted by the federal Environmental Protection Agency 
in the early 1990s after ocean dumping was outlawed in 1987. The city of Los 
Angeles' sludge, for one, had created an underwater desert seven miles from 
shore.

For a time, cities were stuck hauling sewage sludge to landfills. Disposal 
costs rose dramatically. After land application was standardized in 1993 it 
turned out to be far cheaper.

In 1994, locals started complaining to supervisors about smells and messes 
as imported sludge showed up on about 24,000 acres across Kern.

Ever since, Kern has been battling with Los Angeles and other Southland 
agencies over the sludge, first by imposing stricter treatment standards and 
more recently with the push for an all-out ban.

In 2004, the Kern County Water Agency pushed to get sludge-spreading 
operations moved to western Kern, away from valuable underground water 
banks.

The bid failed but ended up kick-starting what was to become last year's 
Measure E.

In the meantime, Kern has become a key player in the sludge debate 
nationwide as other locales fight to stem an ever-growing influx of urban 
sludge.

A ruling in a separate suit two years ago by a state appeals court in 
Fresno, for example, was an important legal decision strengthening local 
control over land use.

"So many other rural areas all over the country don't have the money to 
afford this kind of fight," said Caroline Snyder, professor emeritus at New 
York's Rochester Institute of Technology and founder of Citizens for 
Sludge-Free Land.

It's a worthwhile fight, Snyder said, that will help other municipalities 
"in every state" faced with similar problems.

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