Plan to Haul Garbage to East County Is Criticized : Environment: A supervisor’s proposal would also unify waste-disposal agencies under one entity.

A proposal by Supervisor Maria VanderKolk to establish a single countywide agency that would haul garbage by rail to eastern Ventura County received harsh criticism Thursday at its first public presentation to a group of city and county representatives.

The harshest critics were residents and city officials from Fillmore and Simi Valley, who worried that VanderKolk plans to build a dump in the Santa Clara Valley.

“This is a great concern to the people of the Santa Clara Valley,” Fillmore Mayor Scott Lee told a meeting of the Ventura County Solid Waste Commission.

The commission includes representatives of the county and each city and acts as an advisory group to the Board of Supervisors.

Although VanderKolk has said in the past that the plan would study the possibility of hauling waste by rail to a remote site in the east county, she insisted Thursday that she has not identified a specific site.

“The landfill could be anywhere,” she said.

VanderKolk’s proposal also received a cold reception last month when she first unveiled it to the press and her board colleagues.

Supervisor John K. Flynn said he opposes the proposal because it would not allow private firms to operate landfills in the county.

Supervisor Maggie Erickson Kildee said the idea sounded similar to a modified version of a proposal made last year by VanderKolk’s top aide, Russ Baggerly, a former environmental activist in the Ojai Valley.

Baggerly had proposed hauling waste by rail to a landfill site near Piru as an alternative to opening a landfill in Weldon Canyon near his home in Meiners Oaks.

At Thursday’s meeting, VanderKolk had expected to simply present her idea to the advisory group and answer any questions that might be posed. However, criticism of her plan became so heated that Erickson Kildee had to silence the crowd. “I don’t think this is the place for convincing each other that we are right or wrong,” she said.

The plan is designed to eliminate overlapping authority among various county agencies that regulate recycling and landfills, VanderKolk said. Under the plan, all county organizations dealing with waste disposal--such as the Solid Waste Commission and the county’s Solid Waste Management Department--would be unified under the control of the Ventura Regional Sanitation District.

The plan would also require public operation of all landfills and put private landfill operators out of business. The board of directors of her unified public garbage agency would include representatives from the county and all 10 of the county’s cities.

In issuing the plan March 25, VanderKolk, who took office in January, stepped into one of the county’s most hotly debated issues: where to locate the next generation of landfills.

Waste Management of North America Inc. hopes to open a new landfill in Weldon Canyon near Ojai to replace the Bailard Landfill near Oxnard.

The Ventura Regional Sanitation District, a public agency that operates Bailard and Toland Road Landfill east of Santa Paula, hopes to extend its operating permit for Bailard for two years. It is scheduled to close in 1993.

At Thursday’s meeting, former Simi Valley Councilwoman Ann Rock called VanderKolk’s plan flawed because she said current state legislation would not allow one agency to oversee recycling efforts for the entire county.

She said the plan fails to estimate the cost to the county of hauling trash by rail.

“Does anyone have any inkling on how this will get off the ground?” Rock said.

VanderKolk defended her plan, saying it was only intended to stimulate discussion about alternatives to the Weldon Canyon site.

During her presentation, VanderKolk showed a tape-recorded presentation about a Florida company that used a huge indoor facility to turn waste into topsoil. However, after the presentation, she said the company had gone bankrupt.

Baggerly said the company is bankrupt because it “couldn’t make it through the tough times.”

VanderKolk suggested that Ventura County could cut down on the amount of garbage dumped in landfills by operating a similar processing facility. She said the proposed facility would stay open if it were publicly financed.

Moorpark Councilman Scott Montgomery argued against uniting the Solid Waste Commission and the county’s Solid Waste Management Department under the Ventura Regional Sanitation District. He suggested instead that the Solid Waste Commission be the lead agency.

He pointed out that the commission already has representatives of the county and each city. “Why not go with what is existing?” he said.

VanderKolk said the three agencies should unify under the regional sanitation district because it already has a full-time staff operating a landfill.

Toward the end of the discussion, Oxnard City Councilwoman Dorothy Maron came to VanderKolk’s defense, saying VanderKolk should be applauded for developing a plan.

“Whether taking it by train is a good idea, I don’t know,” Maron said. “But it should be looked at.”

Maron scolded critics for berating VanderKolk.

“We need a little more positivism on this,” she said.