What a Dump: O.C. Canyon Hailed as Landfill of Future

Orange County sanitation officials have spent 10 years and $50 million transforming this backcountry canyon into something resembling an oversize kitchen trash can.

Scores of workers have lined the canyon bottom and walls with thousands of yards of plastic as officials prepare to open the newest--and most anticipated--commercial landfill in California.

Bee Canyon is being heralded as one of the most environmentally sound waste disposal sites in California, and if successful, the remote facility four miles northeast of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station could become a model for future landfills around the state.

“This is a state-of-the-art landfill, and we will ask other counties in California to use its design,” said Dixie Lass, a senior engineering geologist for the state Regional Water Quality Control Board in Riverside. She said county officials went beyond what was required by state law to construct Bee Canyon.

“This system is the best compromise between unbelievable high cost and protection of the environment,” she said. “The compromise certainly favors the environment.”

Trash heaps, junkyards and dumps are distant cousins to Bee Canyon, which is scheduled to open in March.

What sets Bee Canyon apart is the extraordinary measures taken to protect the surrounding environment, especially the ground water. The bottom of the canyon, nearly a mile long, is lined with several layers of clay, plastic and a synthetic filter fabric to prevent pollutants from seeping into the ground. As insurance, an intricate drainage system has been installed to capture any contaminated water or chemicals that might trickle through the liner. The drainage system diverts rainwater runoff around the landfill, instead of through it.

The technology to safeguard Bee Canyon in the oak-covered backcountry is state of the art. But the result is not much different than lining the kitchen garbage can with a plastic bag.

“This is a high-tech landfill,” said Casey Harris, construction manager for Butier Engineering, the Huntington Beach firm building the landfill. “In 28 or 30 years it will be sealed up and become a regional park.”

Bert Scott, director of the county’s General Services Agency, said that when the landfill is complete around 2020, he hopes the site will become a regional park or a golf course. Another option, he said, will be to return the area to a natural state, limiting access so the native chaparral and wildlife might return.

“I would hope that it will be developed into something that will get the maximum worthwhile public use,” he said.

Facing a growing solid waste crisis, county officials hope that Bee Canyon will relieve pressure on two other landfills in the county that are expected to close soon. Coyote Canyon landfill in the San Joaquin Hills near Newport Beach will close when Bee Canyon opens, and Santiago Canyon landfill east of Orange is scheduled to close in 1991.

That will leave sanitation officials with three landfills--Bee Canyon, Prima Deshecha Canyon east of San Juan Capistrano and Brea-Olinda Canyon east of Brea--to handle its mounting trash load. The county is studying other locations for new landfills, but it could be years before a site is identified and years before it is ready for actual use, underscoring the importance of Bee Canyon.

Each year, the county discards about 4.4 million tons of trash--about 2.2 tons for every man, woman and child, the highest per capita ratio of any county in the nation.

Without Bee Canyon the county would be in a trash crunch, officials say.

“We are lucky in a sense that we can open a new landfill,” said Vicki Wilson, assistant director of the county’s waste management program. “Most other places in California and in the nation have no more room for landfills. Bee Canyon includes the latest technology available.”

Bee Canyon did not evolve smoothly as a landfill.

The county bought the 725-acre canyon from the Irvine Co. for $8.5 million in 1985, six years after it was designated a landfill site. It has taken officials nearly a decade to get the needed permits for construction as well as satisfy layers of stringent environmental requirements mandated by the state Regional Water Quality Control Board. Since the project was conceived, the county has worked with 17 regulatory agencies, slowing the process and frustrating its proponents.

And there was a legal obstacle as well. The city of Irvine filed a lawsuit in 1983 to block the opening of the landfill. In the end, Irvine dropped the suit in exchange for restricting use of the landfill to commercial trash trucks. In addition, dumping will be limited initially to 6,000 tons a day and no more than about 1,000 commercial trash trucks will be allowed to use the landfill each day. The city also extracted several environmental concessions including an agreement by the county to replace each oak tree destroyed during construction with seven new trees.

Despite the delays, county officials say the struggle to secure Bee Canyon’s opening has been worth it.

“It is awesome looking,” said Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, whose 3rd District includes Bee Canyon as well as the Brea-Olinda and Prima Deshecha landfills. “It looks like a giant bowl.”

The mammoth crater formed by Bee Canyon is designed to hold more than 1 million cubic yards of non-hazardous solid waste. When filled with trash and dirt, the canyon will be 410 feet higher--the equivalent of a 34-story building. The canyon is so large, it would take a giant earthmover--working eight hours a day, 365 days a year--nearly 100 years to fill the basin.

Actual construction of the landfill has taken more than two years, including work on a three-mile extension of Sand Canyon Avenue between Irvine Boulevard and the landfill.

To protect the ground water beneath the canyon from water and methane gas pollution, the floor and sides of the canyon are covered with from one to two feet of firm, fine-grained clay. On top of the clay, engineers placed a thick polyethylene plastic liner, then two feet of sand, a layer of high-tech filter fabric, followed by two feet of topsoil.

An extensive drainage system above and below the thick linoleumlike liner guides the water and leached liquids into big sumps at the lowest part of the canyon. Water collected from beneath the liner will be sprayed back on the landfill to control dust, while the more potentially toxic liquids trapped by the liner and drained into the sump will be tested and disposed of off-site.

When in full operation, computers will be used to identify, weigh and bill trucks entering the three fee gates. The trucks will no longer have to stop on the scales and be billed by an attendant.

Trash will be coming in from homes and businesses in Irvine, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, Westminster and Midway City.

Vasquez says the hefty price tag to prepare and open Bee Canyon as a landfill is an investment in the future. But he cautioned that it represents only part of an overall effort to deal with the county’s growing trash crisis.

New ways must be found, he said, to dispose of “green wastes” such as leaves and grass and the millions of troublesome automobile and truck tires that are filling precious space in the county’s dwindling landfills.

Under current laws, the county is expected by the year 2000 to reduce through recycling and other means 50% of what it now dumps in landfills.

“The new landfill is an expensive undertaking, but I believe the public is willing to support it,” said Vasquez, adding that the cost will eventually be repaid by dumping fees. “It is kind of like the old saying, ‘pay me now or pay me later.’ ”

But, he said some cities are looking at paying as much as a $100 per ton to have trash hauled long distances.

“They are paying for poor planning,” he said. “Hopefully, we can avoid that.”

Tons of Trash Per Day Brea-Olinda: 3,422 tons: 23.82% Coyote Canyon: 4,561 tons: 31.75% Santiago Canyon: 2,894: 20.15% Prima Deshecha: 3,488 tons: 24.28% Total: 14,365 tons per day

After the closing of the Coyote Canyon landfill, the new Bee Canyon Sanitary Landfill would handle 6,000 tons of trash per day.

Source: Orange County Waste Management Program