Tide May Be Turning on Sludge Proposals : Sewage: Los Angeles city officials hope they have overcome opposition to the spreading of waste on fields near Lancaster. The test will be a plan that is up for debate Thursday.

A Los Angeles sanitation official said Monday that city officials hope they have “turned the corner” in overcoming objections in the Antelope Valley to the use of Los Angeles sewage sludge as fertilizer on farms in the Lancaster area.

Despite early opposition in the Lancaster area, and the temporary suspension of a sister project in Blythe, a private contractor will seek a state license Thursday to spread an average of 20 tons of the sludge each day on a 640-acre ranch 10 miles east of Lancaster, said Sheila Molyneux, a Bureau of Sanitation executive.

Molyneux told the city’s Board of Public Works that she expects 10 farmers in the Antelope Valley to support the project at a hearing before the California Regional Water Quality Control Board.

The sludge--nutrient-rich remnants of solid waste from the city’s sewage system, which has been treated and concentrated--is actually more environmentally safe as a soil supplement than chemical fertilizers, said water board member Felicia Marcus. Marcus, an environmental activist, said it was unfortunate that the use of the sludge as fertilizer has generated controversy.

“We’ve got farmers from all over who want our sludge,” Molyneux said.

A state water quality board decision to permit the sludge to be applied to Antelope Valley farmland would boost the city’s efforts to find a home for the tons of sewage it generates daily.

The announcement in March that the city planned to dispose of the sludge on five Mojave Desert farms totaling 3,500 acres drew widespread publicity in the Antelope Valley.

After the project became known, the owners of four of the five farms decided not to accept the sludge. At least one of them was scared off by the negative publicity, Molyneux said.

In addition, the use of the city’s sludge on farms in Blythe in Riverside County was temporarily suspended recently after citizens raised questions about the project.

The water quality board’s staff late last month circulated a recommendation for approval of the project to dispose of 20 dry tons a day of Los Angeles sludge in the Antelope Valley.

Bio Gro Systems Inc., which has a contract to dispose of hundreds of tons of the sludge, is seeking a state permit to apply sludge to a farm it owns in the Antelope Valley.

One possible obstacle to Bio Gro’s application could be raised by Los Angeles County. As of late Monday, county Planning Department officials were still trying to determine if the company’s proposal requires a county land use permit.

If a county permit is needed, the water board would postpone Thursday’s hearing. The board’s position is that Bio Gro must obtain all needed local permits before the board will consider an application.

The city pays Bio Gro, which supplied the Blythe project with sludge, $27 to $38 per wet ton to remove the sludge from city sewage plants. A dry ton equals about four wet tons. The city has agreed to provide Bio-Grow with a minimum of 150 wet tons of sludge per day, if Bio-Grow can find a market for it.

The city produces about 1,350 wet tons per day, some of which is burned to generate electricity, some used as fertilizer in Yuma, Ariz., and some used as landfill cover in a West Covina dump.