Field Narrowed to 2 in Search for Site of New Riverside County Landfill

Officials of Riverside County and four cities in the burgeoning western end of the county have narrowed to just two the field of sites to replace the county landfill in Corona, according to Doug Isbell, the county’s chief deputy road commissioner.

The east Corona landfill is nearing capacity and is scheduled for closing at the end of the year. Another landfill in Riverside is scheduled to close at the end of this month.

So a committee representing the county and the cities of Corona, Norco, Riverside and Lake Elsinore has been looking for a new place to dump solid waste.

One of the two potential sites is Owl Rock Quarry, a gravel pit located west of Corona and Norco, near Prado Dam and the intersection of the Riverside (91) and Corona (71) freeways. The City of Corona prefers that site, said City Manager Jim Wheaton, because it is closest to the two cities that will be its primary users.

Second Possible Site

The other possibility, Dawson Canyon, is a vacant 160-acre canyon in the Temescal Valley, about seven miles southeast of Corona and 1 1/2 miles northeast of Interstate 15.

Both sites were included in proposals for private operation of the new county landfill by a Chino-based company, Western Waste Industries Inc., Isbell said.

“We’ve been working on (establishing) a landfill for western Riverside County for two years,” said Al Simonian, vice president of Western Waste Industries.

The Road Department, which is responsible for county landfills, will seek state permits for both sites, Isbell said, because “the permitting of a waste disposal site is a very complex process.”

“We want to assure at least one of the sites getting through the process,” Isbell said. The Road Department will also consider a “county-owned and possibly county-operated” landfill in Dawson Canyon, he said.

Western Waste Industries proposed two sites, Simonian said, so it can accommodate the area’s solid-waste disposal needs for at least 30 years, as requested by the county.

Board to Make Decision

The county Board of Supervisors is expected to make a final decision on the new landfill, based on the recommendation of Isbell’s committee of county and city officials, sometime in March.

Riverside County--which covers 7,243 square miles as it stretches from the Santa Ana Mountains to the Arizona border--owns and operates 17 sanitary landfills, including nine in the western part of the county.

“As a result of rapid residential, commercial and industrial growth,” says a report prepared for the Road Department, “the site lives of many of the landfills have been shortened considerably from what was originally anticipated.”

All three of the county’s westernmost landfills--in Corona, West Riverside and Elsinore--will reach capacity within four years, according to the environmental impact report on potential landfill sites in the area.

Continued Growth Projected

The other landfill serving the western end of the county, owned and operated by the City of Riverside, was closed to public use last month and is scheduled to be completely closed by the end of this month.

But the Southern California Assn. of Governments projects a continuing growth of 2% to 3% annually in the area’s population, and county and city governments are aggressively courting new commercial and industrial development for the area.

That means demand for solid waste disposal will continue to increase, so choosing and building new landfill sites is a high priority for local officials, Corona City Manager Wheaton said.