Orange County Finds Distant Taker for Sludge

Running out of places willing to take the sludge left over from sewage treatment, the Orange County Sanitation District is trucking it to an Indian tribe’s farmland 270 miles away.

Dale Wakimoto, farm manager for the Fort Mojave tribe, said the reservation will save $100 an acre on commercial fertilizer by using the sludge on its vast acreage in eastern San Bernardino County. The tribe will be paid about $6,000 a month for accepting the sludge.

Sludge is the solid matter left over after the sanitation district treats sewage, extracting and cleansing the water. Farmers say the sludge is valuable fertilizer. But concerned about the smell and dust given off by the human waste, agricultural counties throughout the state are banning its use unless it is treated to a higher level to kill disease-causing bacteria and other microorganisms.

Farmers and industry officials say that as fertilizer, sludge results in higher yields and cuts water use on agricultural fields, and that public perception rather than evidence of any harm has led to the bans.

“The material does nothing other than benefit the farming community in more ways than you can count. It’s a wonderful product for the farmers,” said Laurie Loter, spokeswoman for Synagro Technologies Inc., the contractor that hauls the sludge to the reservation.

Wakimoto said health and aesthetic concerns aren’t an issue for his farm because the closest home to the fields is a mile away.

“I’m not too certain that the health concerns are really a relevant issue.... I think the science is there. I think the safety is there,” he said. “It provides us the fertilizer that we need.”

The Fort Mojave tribe is using the fertilizer to get larger harvests of alfalfa, cotton and Bermuda grass, which will be used as dairy feed.

The Orange County Sanitation District, which collects and treats sewage for northern and central Orange County, creates 541 wet tons a day of the coal-black sludge. (A wet ton is about 500 pounds.)

But the county has been running out of places to send its sludge, especially after Riverside County recently banned its use on farms there. At least 18 other counties in the state have similar restrictions. However, the counties would accept sludge treated to a cleaner level. Using sludge as fertilizer is common across the nation and supported by the Environmental Protection Agency. About 40% of the more than 5 million dry tons produced in 2000 was used as fertilizer. However, the agency has asked the National Academy of Sciences to review potential health risks.

Critics argue that the district shouldn’t be sending it anywhere, but should be treating it further on site.

“They’re trucking it to an Indian reservation ... and they still don’t get it,” environmentalist Doug Korthof said. “If it’s such good stuff, why can’t they find closer places to stick it?”

Orange County sewage officials are taking steps toward removing more disease-causing bacteria, viruses and toxic metals so the sludge will qualify as “Class A.” This highly treated sludge can be used as fertilizer in much of California. But this more thorough treatment--likely to be composting or chemical stabilization--is expensive.

“Everyone’s transitioning to Class A technology,” said Brent McManigal, Synagro’s senior operations director. “That will take time and money and permits, which don’t always mesh with the time frames dictated by the counties.”

In 2000, the district spent $3.2 million buying an 1,800-acre ranch in central California to dump its sludge, only to have Kings County ban the sludge, starting in 2003. The sewage agency still will be able to send more thoroughly treated sludge there.

The district has been paying a landowner in San Bernardino County $500 a day for the last six months in hopes of someday buying that land for a composting facility, but the district is backing away after an accounting report said the deal was risky.

So in mid-December, the district began paying Synagro $39.50 per wet ton to truck about one-third of its sludge to the Fort Mojave tribe, which receives $2 per wet ton.

The farm also receives small amounts of sludge from two agencies in Riverside County, and a southern Orange County agency. The tribe’s reservation stretches across more than 33,000 acres of California, Arizona and Nevada, but the sludge will be used only on the California portion.

The tribe is not bound by federal and state sludge rules. However, the sanitation district is requiring the tribe to follow both. One San Bernardino County ordinance is being violated, because the sludge is being applied about 500 feet from a farm well. County law requires a 1/2-mile buffer.

The remainder of the district’s sludge goes to Kings and Kern counties.