TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Kern County on Tuesday won a 4-year-old federal court battle with the city of Los Angeles over the dumping of southland sewage sludge on local fields.

But Los Angeles is already gearing up to start a new battle over Kern County's Measure E sludge ban.

U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess dismissed what was left of a 2006 federal case on Tuesday, leaving the city of Los Angeles and other plaintiffs with the option of filing a new lawsuit in state court.

"The city of Los Angeles is evaluating its options in light of today's ruling," said John Franklin, spokesman for the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office. "The city looks forward to working with Kern County in a constructive manner to assess the next steps in the legal proceedings, taking into account the interests of all affected parties."

Kern County Counsel Theresa Goldner said Los Angeles attorneys have already informed county attorneys they will sue in state court.

Still, local officials enjoyed their victory Tuesday.

"This ruling means Los Angeles and other sanitation districts cannot challenge Kern County's ordinance under federal law," Goldner said in a statement.

She said Kern County has the legal right to begin enforcing Measure E immediately. But it is likely Kern will wait before stopping the procession of trucks that drives into Kern County each day.

Measure E gave Los Angeles and Orange County a six-month grace period in which to end the land application of sludge. When Feess stopped enforcement of Measure E in November 2006, Goldner said, there were still roughly two months left in that grace period.

Kern County staff will likely let those two months expire before asking the Board of Supervisors whether to enforce Measure E, Goldner said.

When asked if Los Angeles had another place to dispose of its sludge if Kern County starts enforcing the ban, Franklin said: "I don't think we have another place to take biosolids at this time."

Southern California's sludge lawsuit was filed in response to Measure E, Kern County's voter-approved ban on the land application of treated human and industrial sewage sludge. Voters here overwhelmingly approved the measure in June 2006, with more than 83 percent voting "yes."

Feess had originally ruled in favor of Los Angeles on some matters, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned those rulings last year and sent the case back to Feess. This summer, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

On Tuesday, over the protests of Los Angeles attorneys, Feess said Los Angeles' two remaining legal arguments -- that Kern County overstepped its police powers and violated the intentions of the California Integrated Waste Management Act -- do not belong in federal court. His order dismissed the federal case against Measure E.

Kern had already been in sludge-related legal battles for years after establishing rules in the 1990s saying only the most highly treated sewage sludge could be spread on county land.

After Measure E passed, the city of Los Angeles, along with sanitation districts in Los Angeles and Orange counties and other industry interests, filed a federal suit against Kern in August 2006.

State Sen. Dean Florez, the Shafter Democrat who spearheaded Measure E, said Tuesday's dismissal "makes it clear leaders in Los Angeles need to do the right thing and stop dumping sludge in Kern County.

"It's a vindication that the people of Kern County had it right when they overwhelmingly voted in favor of Measure E," Florez said in an e-mail.

Kern County has long been the final destination for sewage sludge -- also called by the industry-coined term "biosolids" -- trucked in from Los Angeles, Orange County and other locales. Land application of sludge became popular after ocean dumping was outlawed and landfill disposal proved more expensive.

Proponents equate land application with beneficial recycling of organic matter and say sludge makes excellent fertilizer.

Critics say pathogens, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, household chemicals and varying contents of industrial waste streams aren't completely eradicated by treatment, making sludge a threat to soil, groundwater and potentially to human health.

Some soil scientists have also expressed concern over the sheer quantity spread over and over again on the same spots at sludge farms like the ones in Kern County.

The city of Los Angeles owns and operates its Green Acres farm south of Bakersfield, where most of that city's sewage sludge continues to be trucked on a daily basis. Farmer Shaen Magan owns a private operation in northern Kern that takes sludge from Orange and Los Angeles counties as well as Valencia, Goleta and Ventura, county records show.

Kern's ban only applies to property in unincorporated areas of the county. Entities can and do land apply treated sludge in cities within Kern.

The city of Bakersfield applies its treated sludge to city-owned land. The county's Kern Sanitation Authority treats its sewage sludge to the "exceptional quality" standard and sends it to a composting facility.

There are other independently operated sanitation districts in the county.