Judge to OK sludge transfer

Los Angeles appeared to win a round Monday in its legal battle to keep dumping 250,000 tons of sewage sludge every year on farmland near Bakersfield.

U.S. District Judge Gary Feess said he planned to issue a written ruling within a few days granting a preliminary injunction in favor of the city and its co-plaintiffs, including the sanitation districts for Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The judge’s comments came in a case brought by the city of Los Angeles challenging a ban overwhelmingly approved in June by Kern County voters that would halt the dumping. The law, known as Measure E, was spurred by concerns that the processed human waste could contaminate underground water reserves, damaging agriculture and leading to serious public health problems.

But Feess, tentatively siding with an argument of the plaintiffs, said it is likely that Measure E conflicts with a state law intended to reduce the amount of waste dumped into landfills. Fees said he also would refer the issue to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for further review, and that it was likely to wind up in the hands of the California Supreme Court.

Christopher M. Westhoff, a Los Angeles city attorney handling the case, said he was pleased with the tentative ruling and saw little chance the judge would change his mind. Under state law, he said, “We’re compelled to reduce and recycle our solid waste.” He said the city is accomplishing that by applying the waste as fertilizer on the 4,200-acre Green Acres Farm owned by the city in Kern County.

But Bernard C. Barmann Sr., county counsel for Kern County, said he held out hope that Feess might reverse his stance and, if not, that the county would prevail on appeal. “I don’t think it’s a setback at all. It’s simply the court reviewing the initiative ordinance,” he said.

Barmann said the dispute revolves around whether the county has a right to protect its underground water and “the economic future of this valley. Or can we just be run over by a bunch of urbanites who already have ruined their environment?”

Feess’ tentative ruling has no immediate effect on dumping in Kern County because Measure E would not take effect until 2007. But Westhoff said a ruling against Los Angeles would leave it with too little time to find another site for the waste.

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stuart.silverstein@latimes.com