Panel Rejects All 3 Choices for County Landfill : Garbage: Fears of contaminating underground water prompt the Planning Commission to dismiss the North County areas recommended by county’s staff.

In a major setback to a five-year effort to develop new landfills for North County, the San Diego County Planning Commission on Friday summarily rejected all three sites proposed by the county staff.

Although commissioners voiced specific objections to each of the three nominated sites--one in Fallbrook, one in the Pauma Valley and the third near Warner Springs--they said they were most concerned that all three sites might eventually contaminate underground water supplies.

“I can live in a trash pile with water, but I can’t live without water,” commission chairwoman Lynn Leichtfuss said of her concern that the landfills might eventually leak toxics into the ground water. “I won’t be pressured just because we’re running out of trash space.”

Members of the county’s Department of Public Works, some of whom have been searching for a new landfill site in North County since 1985, warned the Planning Commission that all of the county’s existing landfills will be full in 10 years, and that, even after a new site is adopted by the county, it might take a decade to make it operational.

But, by a series of 4-0 votes, the commissioners said they wanted nothing to do with any of the three sites that had been recommended by the staff. The sites were whittled down from an original list of 168 candidates.

“This is like deciding whether you’d prefer to get mugged by Frankenstein, Godzilla, Werewolf or Dracula,” Commissioner Richard Wright said in discussing the liabilities of each of the three sites.

The commission also rejected the county’s own Environmental Impact Report, which examined the pros and cons of each site, as inadequate and unacceptable. A parade of speakers, some with professional backgrounds, harshly criticized the EIR for its flaws and shortcomings.

The Planning Commission’s recommendation that all three sites be rejected will now go to the County Board of Supervisors, which will make the final decision. It is tentatively scheduled to take up the matter Nov. 14.

The commission did not give direction to the staff to begin considering alternative sites, although there was general discussion among them that sites along Interstate 15 closer to Escondido should be given greater consideration because of their proximity to greater population centers that generate the bulk of the garbage.

Unsaid among the commissioners, but recommended by various speakers who addressed the commission on Friday, was a previously rejected site known as Merriam Mountain, just west of I-15 near the Lawrence Welk Resort and the adjoining Champagne Village mobile home park.

The stage is now set for the Board of Supervisors, which is hard pressed to find a landfill site in North County, to either reject the Planning Commission’s recommendations and adopt one, two or all three of the proposed sites anyway, or to order the county staff to resume the search and brace for a debate over an all-new site.

Critics of all three sites said they were delighted by the commission’s votes but expressed concern that they still had to do final battle with the Board of Supervisors.

In rejecting the sites, two planning commissioners said they felt uneasy that one of the sites--Gregory Canyon, alongside California 76 in the Pauma Valley, just east of I-15--is already owned by a partnership of two local landowners and Waste Management of California, a subsidiary of Waste Management Inc., which promotes itself as the world’s largest and most experienced company specializing in urban waste-management problems.

The company bought a share of the Gregory Canyon site last year with the hope of having it selected by the county, then winning permission from the Board of Supervisors to privately operate it. All landfills in the county are now owned by the county, which maintains control of the landfills but subcontracts for day-to-day operations.

“It’s not in the public’s interest to have a dump site privately owned and operated,” said Commissioner Richard Wright. “I feel very uneasy with that.”

Commissioner Clarence P. Wilson said he shared the concern.

Rick Daniels, manager of special projects for Waste Management of California, said the company would “absolutely” still pursue the site when the issue goes to the Board of Supervisors.

Besides the ground-water issue, the planning commission members said they were opposed to the Gregory Canyon site because it is considered sacred by the Pala band of the Mission Indians who live nearby.

Other concerns focused on the necessary relocation of San Diego Gas & Electric Co. power lines that now cross the property, the proximity of the site to underground water lines bringing California Aqueduct water to San Diego County and geological fractures under the site that could undermine its integrity.

The commission rejected the Aspen Road site in Fallbrook because of the weight of testimony--including from the U.S. Marine Corps--that, if the landfill’s polyethelene-and-clay liners were to fracture, the garbage toxics would contaminate the Santa Margarita River basin, which provides Camp Pendleton with 70% of its water.

The third site--Blue Canyon, near Warner Springs--was summarily dismissed by the commission because of the danger of ground-water contamination and also because of its distance from North County’s population centers and fear that it would prove too expensive for trash haulers and, ultimately, North County residents who would have to pick up the bill.

Commissioner Dave Kreitzer also faulted that site because it is the most pristine natural habitat of the three sites under consideration.