COUNTYWIDE : Residents to Pay for Higher Dump Fees

Ventura County residents will have to pay up to $1.25 more each month to dispose of garbage under a plan approved Thursday to raise fees at two landfills.

The Ventura Regional Sanitation District approved a proposal to raise the commercial dumping fee at the Bailard landfill in Santa Clara to $39.50 a ton, up from $30. Commercial rates at the Toland Road landfill, east of Santa Paula, will go up to $33 a ton from $26.

Private vehicles will be charged a flat $15 fee, up from $10. District directors also decided to impose a reduced, $24-a-ton fee for the disposal of recycling materials. The new fee was added as an incentive to residents to recycle, district General Manager Wayne Bruce said.

The increases on commercial garbage handlers, which will become effective July 1, will be passed on and will mean that residents could expect to pay between 65 cents and $1.25 more each month to have their garbage carted away by those haulers, Bruce said.

The fee increases at the landfills are needed to pay for the expected costs of closing Bailard in the next decade, as well as to expand the district’s recycling program, Bruce said.