Landfill Proposal Stinks, Santa Paula Officials Say

Making room for all of western Ventura County’s trash by expanding the Toland Road Landfill in its box-shaped canyon near Santa Paula makes perfect sense to Gary Haden.

“Think of it as a giant trash can that is half full,” said Haden, operations manager for the public agency that runs the dump. “What we are proposing is to fill it to the top.”

But local officials and growers are upset with the prospect of living next door to “a mountain of trash,” which they say threatens not only the environment but their semirural lifestyle.

Indeed, for Santa Paula Mayor John Melton, the proposed landfill expansion is just another slap in the face to a community that is still trying to get used to living with a new county jail in its midst.

“Why should we be the armpit of Ventura County?” Melton said. “They’ve dumped their prisoners on us, and now they’re dumping their trash on us.”

The fight over the Toland Road Landfill proposal is only the latest chapter in a seemingly never-ending saga over what to do with west county trash after Bailard Landfill in Oxnard closes this summer.

The ultimate solution, it appears, may be reached through a process of elimination.

County voters in March soundly defeated a decade-old proposal to develop a new west county landfill at Weldon Canyon. And several west county cities have snubbed a recent offer by the Simi Valley Landfill to take all of their trash in exchange for exclusive, long-term contracts.

Now the proposed Toland Road Landfill expansion has become the focus of attention. The plan calls for increasing the amount of trash the dump can accept from 135 tons a day to a maximum 1,500 tons.

The county Planning Commission on Thursday will consider approving a new operating permit for the Ventura Regional Sanitation District, which runs both the Toland Road and Bailard landfills.

The county’s planning staff has recommended approval, saying in a report to the commission that the benefits of the project outweigh the increased traffic, noise and emissions that would result from an expanded dump.

The report stresses that the landfill already exists and that enlarging it would ensure a low-cost, publicly controlled west county disposal site for about 31 years.

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The county staff’s recommendation echoes that of the project’s environmental impact report, which concluded that the expansion would do less harm to the environment than other disposal options, including shipping trash to Simi Valley or Los Angeles County.

The landfill expansion has won the support of the Ventura, Port Hueneme and Thousand Oaks city councils. And county Supervisor John Flynn, who once opposed the expansion, said recently that he now supports it.

Flynn’s vote could be key, since supervisors Frank Schillo and Judy Mikels both have said they believe the west county should have its own landfill. Supervisor Maggie Kildee opposes the expansion, while Supervisor Susan Lacey has not taken a position.

Still, the Toland Road proposal faces significant opposition.

The cities of Santa Paula and Fillmore recently filed a joint lawsuit against the county and the sanitation district, charging that the project’s environmental study is inadequate. The Santa Clara Elementary School District and a group of local ranchers and growers have filed similar suits.

Fillmore Mayor Roger Campbell said that sending the area’s trash to either the Simi Valley Landfill or the Chiquito Canyon Landfill in Los Angeles County remain more attractive alternatives.

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Campbell said he is concerned that the Ventura Regional Sanitation District, a public agency with 114 employees and a $23-million budget, is simply pushing the Toland Road Landfill expansion to stay in business. If the expansion is voted down, the sanitation district has said that it could not afford to continue operating the landfill.

“There’s no logical reason why government should be in the trash business anymore,” Campbell said. “There are private companies that want and need our trash.”

But Ed McCombs, general manager of the sanitation district, said that part of the district’s mission and responsibility is to provide trash disposal solutions. He noted that there are also advantages to having a second county landfill, particularly one that is publicly controlled.

For one thing, he said, it provides healthy competition within the county, noting that the proposed $18-per-ton disposal fee that the expanded landfill would offer is lower than any competitor’s.

Another advantage to Toland Road, McCombs said, is that the west county would not have to worry about being subject to rate and regulatory controls of other jurisdictions, such as Los Angeles County.

“From a public-interest standpoint, I see a great benefit for this county to have this expansion go forward,” McCombs said, adding that the $31-million cost of the expansion would be covered by disposal fees.

Still, McCombs said, he understands the concerns of area residents and pledged that the district will work to resolve them. He noted that traffic, air quality and noise problems in the area are already unacceptable, even without the landfill’s impact.

“We take their concerns very seriously, and we are fully committed to being a good neighbor,” he said.

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For example, McCombs said, the district is prepared to set up a special fund to help reduce noise problems at the Santa Clara School--a 100-year-old, one-room schoolhouse--near the California 126 and Toland Road intersection. He said money could be used to build sound walls or to install sound-proof windows at the school.

He said a similar fund could be established to help pay for converting city vehicles in Santa Paula and Fillmore to run on compressed natural gas to reduce emissions in the surrounding area.

Large transfer trucks, which haul three times the volume of regular trash trucks, would also be used to help reduce traffic on California 126, McCombs said.

And in response to growers’ concerns about potential dust problems, McCombs said the sanitation district plans to wet down surface areas, pave landfill roads and nearby farm roads and set up a wheel-wash station for trucks leaving the dump site.

“During the course of the landfill’s operation, dust will not be a problem,” he said.

Nonetheless, Melton said that his city would not change its position on the landfill expansion. He said the landfill was only built to serve the needs of Santa Paula, with Fillmore later joining.

Melton said other west county cities should take responsibility for their own trash problems.

“Everyone wants to dump on Santa Paula,” he said. “Everyone is looking out for their own damn self-interests. But we’re the ones that are going to end up with an unhealthy monster sitting downwind from us. I don’t think that’s fair.”