Local News in Brief : Proposals Sought on Trash Rail Lines
At the request of a group of San Gabriel Valley cities, the county Sanitation Districts have invited companies to submit proposals for hauling trash by rail from Los Angeles County to remote disposal sites.
Steve Maguin, head of the Sanitation Districts’ solid-waste management department, said they are willing to consider proposals that would serve any section of the county, take any amount of trash and haul it by rail to any disposal site. Companies are being asked to submit detailed cost estimates and financing plans.
The solicitation will help the districts and cities determine whether shipping trash by rail is a workable alternative to other disposal methods, such as expansion of existing dumps or the establishment of new dumps in the metropolitan area.
In a study conducted early this year for the San Gabriel Valley Assn. of Cities, the Southern California Assn. of Governments concluded that loading trash on train cars for shipment to disposal sites in the desert is “a potential solution to the solid-waste disposal crisis projected for the 1990s.”
But numerous environmental and political issues would have to be resolved before trash trains could begin operation, Maguin noted.
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