North County Trash-Power Plant Clears Last Hurdles

Opponents of a controversial trash-to-energy plant in San Marcos have been dealt back-to-back blows in their attempts to block the project.

On Friday, Superior Court Judge Anthony C. Joseph ruled that the City of San Marcos’ environmental impact report for the plant was valid, despite claims by opponents that it was technically flawed.

Joseph’s ruling followed a decision Thursday by appellate court judges in San Diego who rejected the opponents’ attempt to force a public vote on the trash-burning power plant.

Upholding a ruling by Superior Court Judge F.V. Lopardo last March, the 4th District Court of Appeal in San Diego agreed Thursday that the proposed election was unconstitutional and could not be used to try to block the plant’s construction.

The election had been sought by Citizens for Healthy Air in San Marcos, which wanted to force a special election to consider adoption of an initiative that, if approved, would have required two-thirds approval by voters before construction of the trash-burning power plant.

Lopardo ruled last spring that two-thirds approval was too strict a requirement, and that the City Council’s administrative approval of the $120-million plant could not be subjected, after the fact, to an initiative election by persons wanting to overturn the council’s decision.

The initiative process, Lopardo had said, was limited to policy issues, not specific administrative approvals, such as the council’s approval of the special use permit allowing the plant to be built.

Richard Chase, managing director of North County Resource Recovery Associates, said Friday that his company was pleased by the ruling. “It removes any doubt on the issue, and if the other side were to appeal to the California Supreme Court, we still remain confident that it would rule in the same way as the two lower courts,” Chase said.

He said no other significant hurdles remain for construction of the plant, which is designed to burn much of North County’s garbage as fuel to drive steam turbines that will generate electricity.

He said ground breaking for the plant, adjacent to the county’s existing landfill along Questhaven Road on the south side of San Marcos, is expected in November.