Stirling Says S.D. Project ‘Invites Disaster’ : Measure Would Block Trash-to-Energy Plants

Fearful that the proposed trash-to-energy project in San Diego “invites disaster,” Assemblyman Larry Stirling (R-San Diego) introduced legislation Wednesday that would halt construction of such plants in California until ongoing studies about their impact on air quality are completed.

A state Air Resources Board spokesman said it could be 18 months or more before studies have been completed on dioxin and other toxic chemicals likely to be released from the garbage-burning, power-generating plants.

The precise impact of Stirling’s bill on 33 such plants, in various stages of planning in California, was uncertain Wednesday. But the measure is certain to meet heavy resistance in Sacramento, where trash-to-energy technology has vocal critics and fans in both the Legislature and the bureaucracy.

Only one trash-to-energy plant, a tiny experimental one at Lassen College in Susanville, is operating in California.

But the state Solid Waste Management Board has been encouraging their development as an alternative to landfills for disposing of the 36.5 million tons of non-hazardous garbage produced in the state annually.

Stirling said he only became a critic of the plants last year, when in response to constituent complaints he wrote to the Air Resources Board to learn more about the pollution they cause. He said he fully expected to get an answer that would alleviate his fears.

Instead, he said he was shocked when ARB Chairman Jananne Sharpless wrote back on Oct. 2 that the proposed plant near his district “will emit several substances which are only beginning to be understood and for which no air quality standards nor controls have yet been developed.”

The proposed 60 megawatt San Diego Energy Recovery (Sander) project near the Miramar Naval Air Station would burn 2,250 tons of garbage a day.

Stirling, whose district begins a mile east of the proposed plant, said it is backwards to build the Signal Environmental Services Inc.’s proposed Sander plant, or any others, until the potential pollutants and health hazards are identified.

“That stuff would be in your kid’s lungs before you could do anything about it,” Stirling said in a recent interview. “It’s incredible . . . If they beat us on the legislation we are going to run an initiative.”

The trash to energy plants, which ARB officials say are the “most volatile local environmental questions being raised at the moment,” have long been controversial in San Diego County.

Last year, Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed legislation that would have invalidated a proposed citizen’s initiative designed to block a plant in San Marcos. So far, courts have kept that election from being held.

Last month, a Senate committee killed a bill by Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights) that would have encouraged construction of trash-to-energy plants by making $500 million in bond financing for them available during the next 10 years.

Another bill pending in the Legislature, by Assemblyman Frank Hill (R-Whittier) would establish several technical roadblocks to a proposed plant in Los Angeles County that is near a Miller Brewing Co. brewery in Irwindale.

Miller is trying to block construction of the facility.