Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Wednesday told Britain's Labor Party leaders about efforts to turn Los Angeles into "the greenest and cleanest city in America."
That didn't sit too well with state Sen. Dean Florez, the Shafter Democrat, who fired off e-mails to the media to remind us that it's Los Angeles, under Villaraigosa's leadership, that wants to spread human waste on Kern County land, and is suing the county to overturn a vote by the people there to prohibit L.A. from using the Valley as its private toilet.
"Green at whose expense?" the Florez e-mail asks. Go get 'em, Dean.
Read on for the text of the Florez e-mail.
California Senator Rips L.A. Mayor's "Greenest City" Claims
BAKERSFIELD -- Senator Dean Florez, D-Shafter, challenged comments made by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at a meeting of Labor Party leaders while visiting England, where he claimed that Los Angeles will be greenest city in world. Florez wants to know: Green at whose expense?
Florez has led the fight to stop L.A. from spreading treated human waste, known as sewage sludge, on Kern County fields. This past June, the voters in Kern overwhelmingly voted to ban the practice, yet the City of Los Angeles is suing to overturn the will of the voters.
"Antonio is following the same pattern as past mayors, by shipping their environmental problems to neighboring cities. It's green at someone else's expense. L.A. is spoiling our environment, so Antonio should at least tell the world stage that his version of green means throwing your trash, or in this case your sewer sludge, at your neighbor," Florez said.
"The City of Los Angeles has trucked millions of tons of sewage sludge, with some of the world's most toxic by-products, to spread on Kern County farmland. Congress banned sludge from being dumped in the ocean because of it detrimental effects on ocean life, and now we're supposed to believe it is safe for farming? Given the recent spinach E. coli outbreak, does it really make sense to spread waste near food crops, with run-off and the potential to contaminate groundwater?"
"Maybe I'll take a trip to London to set the record straight," threatened Florez. "The City of L.A. should honor the will of the voters in Kern, get their sewage waste out of our community, and drop their lawsuit that is costing a poor rural county millions to defend. It seems that city leaders' idea of being green is to dump on their neighbor and when he complains, sue him into submission. I call it 'bullying green' and the mayor should at least be honest and take ownership for his part in ruining the environment of his neighbor. 'Green only up to the city's boundary' is a shortsighted and quiet frankly hypocritical position that the self-proclaimed 'greenest mayor' from the 'greenest city in world' should be embarrassed about."
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