Countywide : Board OKs Separate Trash Department

Because trash is becoming big business in Orange County, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to turn the county’s Waste Management Program into an independent department, severing it from the much larger General Services Agency.

In the last 10 years the Waste Management Program’s budget has grown from $10 million to $120 million. The number of employees in the program has grown to 280.

“This is not unnecessary growth of government,” Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez said.

Orange County’s 2.2 million residents throw away 4.4 million tons of trash a year--an average of 11.5 pounds per person of residential and commercial waste per day, compared to a national average of 6.4 pounds per person, according to county statistics.

“How we are going to deal with solid waste disposal will be the issue of the 1990s,” Vasquez said.

At the same time Tuesday, the board named Frank R. Bowerman, head of the Waste Management Program, as acting director of the new department.

Prior to the board’s action Tuesday, the Waste Management Program was part of one of the largest agencies in county government. Bowerman, under the old structure, reported to R.A. Scott, director of General Services. Bowerman will now report directly to the Board of Supervisors.

Supervisor Don R. Roth praised Scott for nurturing the Waste Management Program within the General Services Agency.

The Waste Management Program was declared independent one week before one of its largest projects, Bee Canyon Landfill, is scheduled to open. The $50-million, high-tech landfill will have a capacity of 109 million cubic yards and is expected to remain in operation for more than 30 years. The landfill includes the latest technology to protect the environment, especially the ground water beneath the canyon site that has been lined and equipped with an elaborate drainage system.

Ceremonies opening the Bee Canyon Landfill will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday at the site, which is just off an extended portion of Sand Canyon Boulevard east of Irvine Boulevard, about four miles northeast of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.