Countywide : Jury Urges Advance Purchase of Landfills

County officials should acquire property for future waste disposal landfills now, before areas adjacent to potential sites are teeming with development, according to a report from the Orange County Grand Jury to the Board of Supervisors.

The report, released Wednesday, also recommended that all future county-operated landfills, including the Bee Canyon landfill near Irvine, be open to the public. The Bee Canyon facility, which is scheduled to begin operating later this year, may be used only by commercial vehicles under an out-of-court settlement of a lawsuit between the county and the city of Irvine.

The grand jury noted that all four of the county’s existing landfills are open for use by anyone. It also noted that two of those landfills are scheduled to close next year, and suggested that people might resort to illegal roadside dumping of bulk trash.

Buying land now would lessen the chances for opposition to future landfills, according to the report.

By the time the Bee Canyon facility is operating, “it will have taken 10 years for (it) to go from conception to fruition,” according to the report. “If a landfill site had been established earlier, before the development of residential areas, the NIMBY (not in my back yard) syndrome could have been avoided.”

Irvine’s lawsuit over the Bee Canyon landfill attacked the county’s evaluation of the impact the project would have on the environment and people who live nearby.