County to Look Again at Also-Ran Site for Dump

Five years after settling on Weldon Canyon as the best spot for a new landfill, Ventura County has decided to take a second look at another possible site.

Hammond Canyon, a 2,000-acre cattle ranch 4.5 miles east of Weldon Canyon, will be studied to see whether there would be fewer harmful effects on the environment and area residents if a landfill were located there instead of Weldon Canyon, county planners said.

The County Board of Supervisors will be asked to approve the study next week.

The study of Hammond Canyon, which is off Canada Larga Road near California 33 north of Ventura, will become part of a lengthy environmental impact report now under way on Weldon Canyon and due to be completed this fall after several delays.

But area environmentalists say building a landfill at Hammond Canyon is no better than placing one at Weldon. Environmentalists and the city of Ojai have fought the Weldon Canyon site on the grounds that a new landfill there would increase air pollution.

Environmental critics say a landfill would generate 600 vehicle round-trips each day. But operators of the proposed landfill say they could cut that number by 60% by recycling garbage in Oxnard and then compacting the remaining trash before hauling it to Weldon Canyon.

Ojai residents are concerned because ocean breezes push air pollution from Ventura and California 33 up the Ventura River Valley and into the Ojai Valley, where mountains trap the smog.

Hammond is farther east than Weldon, and any emissions from trucks or gasses from the landfill itself probably would not blow into the Ojai Valley, said Russ Baggerly, executive director of the Environmental Coalition.

“But even if the dump itself is not in the same air shed as Ojai, the freeway is,” he said, referring to California 33, which snakes through the Ojai Valley.

Baggerly predicted that environmentalists would continue to oppose both sites.

William Mount, director of planning for the county Air Pollution Control District, said landfills at Weldon or Hammond canyons would affect air quality in almost the same way.

“The impacts could even be a little higher on the Ojai air shed because trucks would have to travel farther to Hammond,” Mount said.

Hammond Canyon was the county’s second choice after Weldon Canyon for a new landfill site in the county’s 1985 Solid Waste Management Plan.

But because owners then did not want a landfill on their ranch, the county had no access to the site for detailed studies and had virtually eliminated the property from consideration. But since then new owners have contacted the county, which is interested in leasing the property for a landfill.

The county must reconsider Hammond Canyon because the California Environmental Quality Act requires that available alternative sites be evaluated before a project is approved, said Scott Ellison, the county planner who has spent the past two years overseeing the Weldon Canyon project.

“We are now exploring whether Hammond Canyon is any better than Weldon,” Ellison said.

Waste Management of North America, which has held a lease option on Weldon Canyon since 1985, has already invested about $4 million in Weldon Canyon, said James Jevens, project manager for Weldon Canyon.

“I’m biased, but when you look at Hammond Canyon and you see a standing Chumash pueblo, wildlife in abundance and open space, I wouldn’t let them touch it with a 10-foot pole,” Jevens said.

Harry Knill, principal shareholder in Hammond Canyon Inc., which owns the Hammond Canyon ranch, said he believes that Hammond is a better site for a landfill than Weldon because it is tucked in the hills north of Ventura farther away from people.

“Our interest is if we can be helpful,” said Knill, a Santa Barbara resident. “But we do not want to upset the community.”