O.C. may keep taking in neighbors’ trash, and the millions in revenue it creates
The pattern is becoming more noticeable — heavy garbage trucks rumbling off the 5 Freeway and onto Sand Canyon Avenue in Irvine, parading past plush new homes with bits of litter flying in their wake.
“I see these trucks whizzing down my street and didn’t realize they were L.A. trash trucks,” complained a woman who lives near the Frank R. Bowerman Landfill, just outside northeast Irvine.
As city governments throughout Orange County consider extending an agreement that allows trash to be imported from neighboring counties, some residents are asking why the county has become a regional dumping ground for Southern California.
The county’s three active landfills are Bowerman, which opened in 1990; Prima Deshecha in San Juan Capistrano, opened in 1976; and Olinda in Brea, which has operated since 1960. All three are among the largest in the country.
The Orange County Waste Disposal Agreement was established in 2009 as part of Orange County’s comprehensive 1994 bankruptcy plan. Implemented in 2010, it allows for annual imports of solid waste, mostly from Los Angeles County but also from Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.
Orange County imported 1.37 million tons of trash in fiscal 2013-14 and accepts close to 6,000 tons of trash per collection day from all sources — 600 tons from the city of Los Angeles alone. The imports bring the county about $40 million a year through fees paid by cities and waste disposal agencies bound by the agreement.
After paying operational costs, the approximately $17 million in net revenue is being used to pay off the county’s bankruptcy debt, which officials say will be settled in 2018. Once the debt is paid, cities will share in future profits if the amendment to extend the waste agreement passes.
The amendment is circulating to city councils around the county; 30 of the 34 had approved it as of Thursday. Unanimous approval from the cities and five sanitary districts is required before the county Board of Supervisors can ratify the extension.
The original disposal agreement runs through fiscal year 2020 with a stipulation to halt importation in 2016. The amendment proposes extending the overall agreement, including importation, through fiscal year 2025.
As an incentive to pass the amendment, the county has pooled $5.4 million in disposal revenue to share among the cities. The money would be dispersed next year on a sliding scale — jurisdictions delivering more waste to county landfills would receive higher payouts.
Anaheim would receive the highest percentage, 13.18%, or about $711,500. Santa Ana is next at 10.6%, or a little over $572,000. The landfill cities — Brea, Irvine and San Juan Capistrano — would receive a combined 11.73%, with Irvine getting the most money, just over $444,000.
The Costa Mesa, Midway City and Garden Grove sanitary districts, the South Orange County Wastewater Authority and the Orange County Sanitation District would receive payouts for commitments to continue using county landfills.
Waste management officials use the term “diversion” to explain why municipal governments spread their garbage to facilities outside their area. During the past two decades, legislative requirements, recycling efforts and other “green” initiatives have reduced the amount of solid waste going to landfills, according to waste disposal officials. But separating recyclables and compostable trash for conversion to new products and energy sources requires a coordinated effort often involving several jurisdictions.
Garbage from outside Orange County is processed at a transfer station to screen out any hazardous waste and to separate recyclables. The trash is then loaded onto transfer trucks for disposal in one of the three county landfills.
“It’s beneficial for both counties,” said Chuck Boehmke, head of the solid-waste department for the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County. “It’s good for Los Angeles because it’s a well-designed, well-maintained landfill system in Orange County that’s close in proximity. That keeps transportation costs down and minimizes the environmental impact of transporting the waste.”
The primary benefit for Orange County, as expressed in the original agreement and echoed by county officials, is that the millions in revenue that are helping to satisfy the bankruptcy debt also stabilize disposal costs for residents and businesses by minimizing the effects of fluctuations in the economy.
Officials with OC Waste & Recycling said they can’t offer precise figures on how much money this saves consumers, but they estimated that rates for garbage service could be 12% to 15% higher if disposal companies couldn’t rely on the revenue from the agreement.
But some residents and officials in Orange County question whether the benefits of transporting and disposing trash from outside sources is worth the environmental effects in their communities.
“We, the city of Irvine, have a disproportionate impact from the landfill,” Irvine Mayor Pro Tem Jeffrey Lalloway said during a recent City Council discussion of the disposal amendment.
He said the waste trucks often travel too fast on city streets and that at times the Bowerman Landfill generates a noticeable odor in town.
He expressed concern about damage to the roads, litter from the trucks and the cost of extra traffic patrols as police address complaints about speeding.
“We have all of the burden that this additional waste agreement is going to bring in,” he said, “but yet we share the benefit proportionate with all the other cities.”
Irvine tabled discussion on the amendment last month pending further examination of the revenue-sharing plan.
“Is it worth it? Is it worth the destruction to our streets, the extra policing, the smell? I don’t know,” Lalloway said. “We need to look at it.”
The Orange County Waste Management Commission, an advisory panel to the Board of Supervisors, says landfill host cities have additional local contracts with the county and waste disposal contractors for transportation and use of the landfills.
According to the commission, Irvine, for example, will receive a total of about $2.5 million through those agreements in the next fiscal year. That revenue puts the city well above others such as Santa Ana and Anaheim that do not have a landfill.
“All host cities historically have wanted more” of the revenue from the waste disposal agreement, said Board of Supervisors Chairman Todd Spitzer. “If one of the cities becomes too problematic, it jeopardizes rates for other cities.”
Landfill host San Juan Capistrano is among the cities still considering the amendment. In addition to Irvine, the others are Costa Mesa and Garden Grove.
Spitzer expressed hope that the amendment will have the required unanimous approval in time for the supervisors to consider it by the end of June.