Bakersfield, Calif.-Kern County officials have confirmed a decision by the board of supervisors to appeal a federal judge’s decision earlier this month essentially striking down a vote prohibiting the city of Los Angeles and others from trucking in biosolids to fertilize farmland. Earlier this month, in a suit brought against Kern by Los Angeles, U.S. District Judge Gary Feess held that the vote unfairly punished the city under the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution. Feess also asserted that the measure conflicts with state law requiring cities and counties to reduce the amount of waste dumped into landfills. The issue has been in the courts since last year, when voters, because of health and economic concerns, approved banning Los Angeles and Orange and Los Angeles counties from trucking sludge from their treatment plants into the Kern area to fertilize a 4,700-acre farm to grow crops for livestock. Spokeswoman Holly Vogel said Kern supervisors voted unanimously last week to take the case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain