Sludge Watch ==> These Bubbas Need Watching - Editorial on Why Florez is Right

[Maureen Reilly]

Bakersfield Californian Editorial
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These bubbas need watching

Thursday, Feb 1 2007

If their sludge doesn't stink, then Los Angeles and other Southern 
California sanitation districts shouldn't mind telling us where it's coming 
from and what's in it.

That's the essence of legislation Shafter Sen. Dean Florez has introduced. 
It will likely be fought by sludge generators and haulers intent on smearing 
their smelly ooze onto Kern County farm land.

Last year, Kern County voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative 
that banned importing sludge and spreading it onto farm land. Sludge is 
human and industrial waste scrapped from treatment plants. Coastal counties 
used to dump it into the ocean. But they were ordered to stop because it 
harmed the fish.

So now Orange and Los Angeles counties' putrid-smelling sludge is hauled to 
the nearest and cheapest "open field" you guessed it, Kern County where it 
is passed off as "fertilizer." Yeah, right.

Kern County voters finally had enough and banned the junk. But a judge in 
Los Angeles has put a temporary hold on the ban. Fearing the court will 
throw out the ban, Florez is seeking the next best thing: Accountability.

Those who generate and haul the stew of chemicals and biological and human 
wastes to Kern County must document what it contains and where it 
originated.

This documentation is required with hazardous waste. And that's exactly what 
Southern California sludge is.

Sludge may not meet federal and state definitions of toxic hazardous waste 
that must be manifested and deposited into special landfills, such as the 
one near Buttonwillow. But it poses dangers, some of which are unknown. 
Simple logic:

* If it's bad for fish, why isn't it bad for our farm land and groundwater?

* If its harmless and so beneficial, why isn't it being smeared closer to 
home in Los Angeles and Orange counties?

Are we supposed to just trust them? Believe they know or care what's in it? 
Are we supposed to be confident they know what they are doing?

These are the same people who are now pointing fingers at each other after a 
recent Los Angeles County audit revealed hundreds of major sewage spills 
have occurred under their watch and nearly 10 million gallons of untreated 
waste has been spilled into ocean off the Southland coast since 2002.

Because cities and districts did not report spills to the Los Angeles County 
Health Department, or the department did not follow up, beaches were not 
closed and swimmers frolicked in polluted water.

These bubbas need watching. Florez's law will make them more accountable.

http://www.bakersfield.com/135/story/97580.html