County to Renew Hunt for Landfill Options

With the proposed Weldon Canyon site for a new landfill under fire from Ojai residents and its environmental impact report delayed, the Ventura County Regional Sanitation District plans to reopen a countywide search for a different site.

The Regional District board was to vote on the matter this morning, but General Manager Wayne Bruce said he expected to get the nod to return next month with a plan to begin the search, which is estimated to cost $200,000.

“The thrust of the district’s involvement is to procure a publicly owned site for a very long-term future,” Bruce said. A private firm, Waste Management of California--which also runs the Simi Valley Landfill--holds the lease for the Weldon Canyon property.

Bruce did not name alternative sites, but he said they would likely be distributed throughout the county instead of concentrated in the county’s west end. He said a consultant’s report should be completed late next summer. However, Bruce said that if the Weldon Canyon environmental impact report--now expected in spring or summer 1990--shows that it is the ideal site, the district likely would rethink its plans.

“Partly, it depends on whether there is a need for more than one landfill in the county and whether there is a need for both public and private,” Bruce said.

Ojai environmentalists have protested a landfill at Weldon Canyon, based on the air pollution that daily truck traffic and heavy machinery would generate.

The district’s move to find a new site comes just as requirements of a new law take effect. That bill invalidates the county’s 1985 Solid Waste Management Plan, which named Weldon Canyon as the county’s next landfill site. The bill also provides for a committee of elected city and county representatives to be charged with deciding where landfills should be built. In the past, county government had that responsibility.

The 1985 solid waste plan examined 38 potential sites and narrowed the final cut to six. Those included five canyons north of Ventura along Highway 33, all of which would contribute to air pollution in the Ojai Valley. The sixth site, Aliso Canyon, is northeast of Ventura.

The proposal to search for a new site does not affect Waste Management of California or its plans to continue working toward permits for the landfill, a process with which it has been involved for five years.

“They have their agenda and we believe in ours,” said Jim Jevens, Weldon Canyon project manager for Waste Management.

The company already has invested $5 million in the potential site, including costs of the lease and the extensive environmental impact report. That report, once expected in January, now is delayed until at least April, and possibly as late as summer 1990, Jevens said.

Three factors contributed to the delay, Jevens said. The most serious consideration is environmental impacts on the Ojai Valley. Jevens said methanol-fueled garbage trucks and heavy equipment at the site are now being evaluated to reduce some of the anticipated pollution.

The new legislation also added some time to the process. Among its provisions is a requirement for cities to reduce their wastes by 25% by 1995 and 50% by 2000. That may mean that Weldon Canyon would need a recycling or recovery center, and its impacts will have to be studied.

Third on the list of delaying factors is the availability of a site near Weldon Canyon. That site, Hammond Canyon, which is about five miles from Weldon Canyon along Canada Larga, was disqualified in 1985 because its owners did not want to sell. But the new owners are now interested, Jevens said. Part of the environmental impact process requires a study of alternative sites, he added.