Antonovich Opposes Plan to Dump Sludge in Antelope Valley : Environment: The proposal to spread hundreds of tons of the sewage byproduct over farms in that area also enrages environmentalists and draws complaints from officials of nearby cities.

County Supervisor Mike Antonovich said Tuesday that he will oppose a plan by Los Angeles to spread hundreds of tons of sewage sludge over farms in the Antelope Valley, a proposal that also enraged local environmentalists and drew complaints from officials of nearby cities.

“It is time the city of Los Angeles and its elected officials recognize they cannot use the Antelope Valley as a dumping ground for their garbage,” said Antonovich, who represents the area. The supervisor said he would change his mind only if the plan were to draw “substantial community support.” That seemed an unlikely prospect Tuesday. Antelope Valley environmental activists vowed to resist it while city officials in both Lancaster and Palmdale complained that they had not been told of the plan and doubted it would be approved by state officials.

Under the plan, Los Angeles, using a private firm, would truck up to 300 tons of sewage sludge a day--more than 20% of the city’s output--to be used as fertilizer at five farm sites in the Antelope Valley.

The state Regional Water Quality Control Board, meeting Thursday in Death Valley, had been set to approve the proposal. But a decision was delayed for two months after some board members complained that the sludge could contaminate the high desert region’s crucial ground water supply.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency and leaders of national environmental groups said that government agencies across the United States are increasingly looking to direct land application of sewage sludge as an option as landfills become scarce.

“It’s an issue that’s exploding all across the country,” said Douglas Rader, a senior scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund, a private, pro-environment group. “We’re seeing hundreds and hundreds of these things coming out of the woodwork all over the country.”

Rader and EPA officials said that using sludge as a fertilizer can be beneficial and is preferable to dumping the mud-like substance into the ocean or landfills, as many cities still do. But they added that the treated sewage can contaminate ground water supplies and pose a health hazard if not properly regulated.

Some environmentalists and city officials in the Antelope Valley, the fastest-growing region of Los Angeles County, see the issue in much simpler terms--as yet another case of people from “down below” in Los Angeles trying to dump their problems somewhere else.

“This is the typical mentality about the high desert,” said Lancaster Mayor Lynn Harrison, who said officials there did not know of the Los Angeles plan before Tuesday. She said city dwellers believe that “nobody lives there--it doesn’t matter.”

“They’re always quick to get rid of what they don’t want up here,” she said.

“I’m sure it’s not going to go over very well with the community,” added Palmdale City Administrator Bob Toone, who also said his city had not been previously told of the proposal.

Toone said the proposal should have to approved by county planners, but Dick Frazier, a county supervising regional planner, said he saw nothing in the proposal that required county action.

“We were just horrified. We are totally against this,” added Stormy Williams, a Rosamond resident who heads an Antelope Valley environmental group called Desert Citizens Against Pollution. “They are not going to get anywhere on this. Everyone in the valley will unite on this.”

Los Angeles officials, who are backing the plan with a private company, Bio Gro Systems Inc., insist that the sludge program is environmentally safe and actually recycles what has been a waste product. The city now trucks 950 tons of sludge a day to farms in Riverside County and Yuma, Ariz., but wants to divert about a third of that to the closer Antelope Valley to save money on trucking costs.

Los Angeles and Bio Gro officials said they could understand public concern over the proposal.

“Because of the public perception of sludge, we are fortunate to be regulated enough that we can be confident it is a good program,” said Carol Pavon, Bio Gro’s monitoring manager.

She acknowledged that Bio Gro, although it has been pursuing the Antelope Valley proposal for nearly a year, until now had not discussed the plans with the public or city officials in Lancaster and Palmdale.

But now, she said, “If they are interested in it, we’re certainly willing to talk.”