Briefly in the news

The Orange County Sanitation District is in a predicament.

It will need to find a place that will take the treated sludge from

north and central Orange County or spend more money to step up its own

treatment level, removing more of the pathogens from the sludge.

The district currently sends its stock of Class B biosolids, or

treated sludge, to Kern and Kings counties, but that will end beginning

in January 2003 because both counties have passed ordinances banning the

import of Class B biosolids.

The Kings County Board of Supervisors drafted an ordinance stating,

“the continuation of this practice will unreasonably and unnecessarily

jeopardize the public health, safety welfare, environment and the economy

of Kings County.”

Central Valley farmer Shaen Magan has 6,000 acres in Kern and Kings

counties where he uses the treated sludge as a fertilizer substitute to

farm cattle feed, milo grass, grain, wheat, all nonhuman consumption

crops.

Magan is currently in litigation with Kern and Kings counties for him

to use the biosolids after January 2003 when the two counties will stop

taking the biosolids.

“There’s no scientific justification for what they’ve done,” Magan

said. “We use the appropriate amount of material per acre and nobody gets

sick [from it].”

The sanitation district’s two branches in Fountain Valley and

Huntington Beach currently treat the human and industrial waste at a

Class B biosolid level. This means the plant receives the raw sewage and

separates the liquid from the solid waste.

The remaining sludge, or solid waste, is then treated to remove some

bacteria, volatile organic compounds and viruses.

Riverside County was a popular place to ship the sludge to, until

officials voted last summer to ban the shipment of Class B sludge to

their county.

So the district is looking at buying land in Colton so the treated

sludge could be turned into compost or green waste, also called Class A

treatment.

Class A treatment involves further reducing the pathogen levels in the

treated sludge.

Treatment of the sludge costs the sanitation district $25 to $29 per

wet ton -- which is about 500 pounds -- or $4.8 million per year,

including treatment and shipment.

The district’s two plants serve a population of 2.2 million in north

and central Orange County, including Huntington Beach.

Treated sludge is then shipped to Kern and Kings counties, where it is

used on farmland to grow cattle feed and milo grass.

If the district decides to buy land in Colton for composting, it would

cost $33 per wet ton or $6.4 million a year, meaning $1.6 million more for increased treatment.

But this figure is only an estimate since no contract has been drawn

up yet, said district spokeswoman Lisa Murphy.

The district’s two plants currently treat a total of 530 wet tons per

day.

“We’re exploring to go to Class A [treatment],” Murphy said. “It’s the

wave of the future and most counties want it.”

Murphy said the district doesn’t have the amount of property to

compost the treated sludge on site.

The district’s board of directors is scheduled to vote on the matter

on Dec. 19.

In the meantime, the district will be looking at an alternative that

will take beneficial reuse into account, said Murphy.

“We want [the sludge] to be recyclable, a product that can be used to

rejuvenate the soil for nonfood crops,” Murphy said. “It’s an option we

would like to see used.”