City of Los Angeles v. County of Kern

The City of Los Angeles, two sanitation districts, two businesses involved in the recycling of biosolids, and the California Association of Sanitation Agencies commenced a lawsuit against Kern County and its board of supervisors and planning commission to challenge the  “surreptitious adoption” of a zoning ordinance that would impose burdensome requirements on biosolids recycling. The plaintiffs-petitioners alleged violations of the California Environmental Quality Act and failures to provide required notices. They also alleged that the ordinance violated a writ issued in another proceeding that required preparation of an environmental impact report in connection with a zoning ordinance concerning land application of biosolids. Their petition-complaint alleged that land application of biosolids can replace use of chemical fertilizers, which accelerate climate change both because of the use of fossil fuels in their manufacture and because of their removal of organic carbon from the soil.