Westlake Farms Co-Composting Facility

Westlake Farms Co-Composting Facility is a facility being built by the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County (LACSD) in Kings County, CA. It will compost LACSD's sewage sludge with the Central Valley’s agricultural waste and urban green waste. This facility is scheduled to be operational in 2013. The site is near the town of Kettleman City, which already suffers from a cluster of birth deformities, presumably caused by the numerous toxins in the area's environment.

According to the website:


 * "The Westlake Farms Composting Facility, located on less than 200 acres of a 14,562 acre site in Kings County, will be a state of the art aerated static pile composting facility when its phased construction is complete. The facility will have the capacity to convert up to 500,000 tons of anaerobically digested and dewatered biosolids and 400,000 tons of agricultural waste materials each year into a valuable compost product. Composting produces a stabilized organic material that will be incorporated into depleted topsoil on the remainder of the San Joaquin Valley site to increase the productivity of the agricultural land by improving moisture retention, porosity, and nutrient conditions in the soil.


 * "The biosolids will be mixed with agricultural wastes to create a mixture that is optimized for the composting process. This will reduce open burning of these wastes, which has historically contributed to air pollution problems in the San Joaquin Valley. The composting facility will employ the static pile process in which air is forced through piles of the compost mixture to provide oxygen for the composting process. Engineered fabric covers will capture odors and organic emissions which may otherwise be released from the composting materials. At full capacity, the composting facility will be able to process over 80% of the biosolids produced in the Joint Outfall System and the Santa Clarita Valley. The finished product will comply with the composting standards for “Exceptional Quality” compost."

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Sewage sludge
 * Biosolids
 * Food Rights Network
 * Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County
 * Kettleman City