Countywide : Landfill Agreement to Come Before Board

The county can avoid the possibility of fines of up to $75,000 daily for not having gas control systems at three landfills if the Board of Supervisors approves a proposed settlement with the South Coast Air Quality Management District next week.

The proposal would give the county until July 31 to fully install a gas control system at the Olinda Alpha landfill in Brea, and provide for deadlines, as yet undetermined, for installing the same system at the Prima Desheca Canyon landfill in San Juan Capistrano and the Santiago Canyon landfill in East Orange.

The systems keep potentially toxic chemicals such as benzene from entering the open air and can be used to convert the gasses into electricity,

The devices were, by law, to have been operating by Jan. 1. The district could have fined the county $25,000 per landfill for every day after the deadline that the devices were not working. As an extreme resort, it could have closed the landfills.

Bert Scott, director of the County General Services Agency, which oversees landfill operations, said he does not consider the violations serious because no toxins are being released into the air.

“We are not emitting gasses into the atmosphere over the level the district prescribes,” Scott said. “We’re placing extra cover over the landfills.”

That extra cover, he said, consists of an additional foot of dirt that is spread over the landfills every night.

The settlement proposal that will be considered by the supervisors Tuesday was worked out in negotiations between lawyers for the county and for the district.