North County Trash-Transfer Plan Gets Cool Reception From Officials

There was grumbling and a bit of finger-pointing Thursday as staff members from half a dozen North County cities got their first chance to comment on a county plan to put seven urban trash-collection sites in their communities.

The plan, devised by a San Francisco-based consulting firm and county public works engineers, recommends that local communities choose seven of a total of 17 sites nominated as potential trash “transfer stations” where local trash haulers would dump. The trash would then be sorted for recycling and reloaded in large tractor-trailer trucks for the long journey to a distant landfill.

Encinitas Councilwoman Marjorie Gaines announced her opposition to the one site nominated for the San Dieguito area, at the southeast corner of El Camino Real and Olivenhain Road. She said the site is one of the few in the city of Encinitas suitable for light industrial development, “and we need it for that.”

San Marcos city representatives said one of three sites selected in their community, along Via Vera Cruz south of California 78, contains vernal pools that would make it ineligible for development.

Roger Walsh, chief deputy director of the county Department of Public Works, reminded the community representatives that “the trash is going to have to go someplace” after the county landfill near San Marcos fills and is closed by the end of the decade.

Walsh asked the city representatives to temper their criticism of the county report “with constructive recommendations” on alternative sites in the same vicinity. When the San Marcos landfill is closed, the urban transfer stations will be needed as way stations to a landfill far from the coastal area where the trash is generated, he said.

Public comment on the proposed in-city transfer stations will come at 10 community meetings scheduled to be held from next Wednesday through Feb. 20. The scheduled meetings are:

Jan. 17: Vista City Council at 2 p.m.; Encinitas City Council at 7 p.m.

Jan. 23: Carlsbad City Council at 6 p.m.

Jan. 24: Oceanside City Council at 9 a.m.; Escondido City Council at 6:30 p.m.

Feb. 5: Solana Beach City Council at 7 p.m.

Feb. 6: Bonsall Planning Group at 7 p.m.

Feb. 13: San Marcos City Council at 6:30 p.m.

Feb. 19: Fallbrook Planning Group at 7 p.m.

Feb. 20: Del Mar City Council at 6 p.m.

Sites recommended in the study are:

Vista: two sites off Sycamore Avenue in the southern part of the city.

Encinitas: a single candidate at El Camino Real and Olivenhain Road.

Carlsbad: five sites east of Interstate 5 along Palomar Airport Road.

Oceanside: two sites, one off Mission Avenue east of the Oceanside Municipal Airport, the other north of Oceanside Boulevard east of El Camino Real.

Escondido: two sites, one on a linear strip along California 78 west of Interstate 15, the other south of Washington Avenue west of Spruce Street.

San Marcos: three sites, one on Via Vera Cruz and two off Questhaven Road west of the existing county landfill.

Fallbrook: two sites east of I-15, north of Pala Road.

Walsh answered criticism from community officials about the many sites by explaining that selection of seven way stations would lessen traffic at any single site. But, Walsh conceded, if community opposition were fierce, the county Board of Supervisors, which has the final say in the selection, may opt to pare down the number of sites.

The county board also will be considering a plan to offer incentives to communities who agree to accept trash from their neighbors.