Plan for Pomona Waste-to-Energy Plant Killed

Directors of the county Sanitation Districts voted Monday to drop plans to build a controversial $165-million waste-to-energy plant at the Spadra landfill in Pomona.

James F. Stahl, assistant general manager, told directors that although the project is “technically and environmentally sound,” it has lost the support of the cities it was designed to serve. Without commitments from Pomona, Walnut, San Dimas, La Verne and Claremont to supply trash for the plant, he said, it is futile to continue working on plans to build it.

Walnut Mayor Harvey Holden said the project has aroused strong public opposition and has “absolutely no proponents in the city of Walnut.” Claremont Mayor Judy Wright noted that most of the county’s trash goes to disposal sites in the eastern half of the county and said that it is time for the west side of Los Angeles “to take its fair share.”

The Sanitation Districts’ decision is the latest in a series of setbacks for waste-to-energy proposals. The state Energy Commission in April rejected a plan for a $395-million trash incineration plant in the San Gabriel Valley city of Irwindale, and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley recently called for abandonment of the proposed $235-million LANCER incinerator in South-Central Los Angeles.

Long-range plans by the Sanitation Districts have called for construction of waste-to-energy plants to burn nearly half of the 45,000 tons of trash generated daily in the county. But the only incinerator in operation is a facility in the City of Commerce that burns up to 400 tons of trash a day. A second incineration plant under construction in Long Beach will have a capacity of 1,350 tons per day. The two plants together could burn less than 4% of the county’s trash.

Citizen groups have charged that the Spadra plant, which would have burned 1,000 tons of trash a day to create electricity for sale to Southern California Edison Co., would release pollutants, including cancer-causing dioxins, and harm air quality and public health.

Ali Razavi, representing four citizen groups opposed to the project, told directors that San Gabriel Valley residents cannot tolerate “the idea of burning garbage in the area with the worst air quality in the nation.”

Stahl noted that the staff of the South Coast Air Quality Management District had found that the project met air pollution regulations. In addition, he said, the alternative of hauling trash from cities around the Spadra landfill to another disposal site would create more air pollution than the proposed incineration plant.

Downey Mayor Diane Boggs complained that the project was being dropped for political and emotional reasons, even though it is technologically sound. But other directors said they believe there are unresolved questions about the safety of waste-to-energy plants.