4 of 5 Farms Drop Out of L.A. Sludge-Dumping Plan

A plan by the city of Los Angeles to get rid of up to 300 tons a day of sewage sludge by spreading it over Antelope Valley farm fields as fertilizer appeared to be unraveling Wednesday, as the owners of four of the five proposed farm sites backed out.

The farmers, who control about 2,900 of the 3,500 acres involved, said in interviews that they don’t want land sales or development prospects endangered by sludge-related environmental concerns.

That left only one 640-acre farm, which is owned by the company that the city hired to truck the sludge.

“It sounded pretty good at the time to get free fertilizer on your land,” said William Barnes, owner of the 941-acre Barnes Bros. Ranch west of Lancaster. “But I’m not so hot on that thinking now. We’re too close to development to jeopardize it.”

Meanwhile, County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the Antelope Valley area, said he planned to ask the Board of Supervisors today to halt the project pending county review.

That came on the heels of high desert environmentalists vowing to fight the plan, and officials in the valley’s two largest cities--Lancaster and Palmdale--complaining that they knew nothing of the proposed sludge dumping in outlying areas until it was reported Tuesday.

The city of Los Angeles, through a private company, Bio Gro Systems Inc., had applied for a state permit to dispose of more than 20% of the city’s treated sewage sludge in the Antelope Valley. A state water board, citing fears of ground-water pollution, last week delayed its decision for two months.

Los Angeles produces about 1,350 tons of sewage sludge daily. About 950 tons each day is trucked to farms in Riverside County and Yuma, Ariz. The city wants to cut its trucking costs by shifting about a third of that to the high desert. The rest is used at the BKK landfill in West Covina.

More than a year ago, Bio Gro began offering Antelope Valley farmers free sewage sludge for use as fertilizer. Bio Gro bought its own 640-acre site west of Lancaster, and four other area farm owners signed up, making five sites.

But Barnes and representatives of the Ritter and Goode Ranch and the Munz Ranch say that they are no longer interested in the sludge, because drought and rising land prices have made it more profitable to sell the land for housing.

The development company that owns the fourth site, the 480-acre Kotchian and Maricich Ranch east of Palmdale, also has turned Bio Gro down, said Ken Hatcher, who farms the land.

A spokeswoman for Bio Gro said the company still intends to pursue the project and will try to recruit other area farmers.

However, Carol Pavon, Bio Gro’s monitoring manager in Palmdale, said she did not know whether the company had been told by the four landowners of their change of heart. “We still have our ranch, and we’ll have to go and talk to the farmers,” she said.

Like Barnes, Arnold Munz, owner of Munz Ranch, said he too is looking to get out of farming. “I’m not going to do it,” he said of the sludge. “I want to sell the ground. And I’ll never be able to do it if I tie up the land.”

A spokesman for the Ritter and Goode Ranch said it has a buyer under option who wants nothing to do with Los Angeles sewage sludge.