Critics Assail Plan for Compost Facility : Environment: Homeowners downwind of proposed 67-acre Antelope Valley site fear health risks and odor.

Angry homeowners and the officials of a composting company faced off Wednesday at a public hearing over a proposed 67-acre facility in an unincorporated region of north Los Angeles County.

More than 200 residents, mostly from communities downwind of the proposed site, filled the council chambers to complain of what they say are flaws in a draft environmental impact report on the composting facility.

Wheelabrator Clean Water Act Systems Inc. wants to build an outdoor facility where 500 wet tons of municipal sewage would be churned in with 1,000 tons of green waste, such as yard trimmings, every day to be turned into a rich compost, company officials said. The material would then be sold to farmers in the San Joaquin Valley for fertilizer.

Speaking for Wheelabrator, Doug Walters, an associate engineer of biosolids management for the city of Los Angeles, said that the composting technique has the support of environmental groups such as Heal the Bay and the Sierra Club. “This is a beneficial use of biosolids”--sewage sludge--Walters said.

Neighbors of the proposed site say they fear the composting facility will cause unpleasant odors in the area as well as pose health risks, especially given the gusty winds typical of the Antelope Valley.

Representing more than 50 medical professionals, Shanon Davis-Ashton, a health educator, said that the sludge that would be brought from the cities around Los Angeles County would contain salmonella, polio virus, hepatitis, E. coli and other harmful microorganisms.

Reading from a letter she presented to the commissioners, Davis-Ashton said, “Please respect our medical views and the high probability that this composting facility is a sure greater health risk than any other possible benefit it could bring our community.”

Pointing out that the area of the site has not been zoned for industrial use, Jim Nigra, a local resident said, “I can’t raise six pigs in the zone but they can bring 500 tons of wet sewage a day.”

Worried by the prospective smell of the composting facility, Pandora Moehle of Antelope Acres said in an interview, “The menu for every day will be, for breakfast, eggs, bacon and a side of biosolids.”

After four hours of presentations, the commissioners voted to continue the hearing Downtown on Aug. 2.