County Votes to Expand Dump at San Marcos : Waste: Supervisors ignore strong objections from residents over ‘Mt. Trashmore.’ San Marcos mayor vows to fight the expansion unless county agrees to strict conditions.

Over the objections of San Marcos and its neighbors, San Diego County supervisors Tuesday voted to more than double the capacity of the San Marcos landfill, the only place for the fast-growing North County cities to dump their waste.

The action came after a heated hearing on the issue at which San Marcos Mayor Lee Thibadeau told supervisors that the city would not allow the expansion until the county agrees to use its powers to force all North County cities to commit their waste flow to the landfill and a proposed trash-to-energy plant that would burn refuse to create electricity.

Supervisors did agree to talks with San Marcos officials on the landfill but made no commitments.

Nearby residents of Elfin Forest, neighbors of the county landfill, stressed that they don’t want to see “Mt. Trashmore” grow another 200 feet in height or expand in area, which would require condemning several expensive new homes to form a buffer area around the trash.

The residents protested that the county had promised that, when the current landfill reaches capacity, which is expected by July, that the operation would be closed and the area would be turned into a park. Supervisors countered that the landfill, which is within the San Marcos city limits, was not expected to be closed until 1999 but filled faster because the proposed trash-to-energy plant was not built in 1984, as expected, to remove about 50% of the waste going to the dump.

Al Sargeant, spokesman for the Elfin Forest homeowners, argued that the landfill expansion would increase the noise, dust and traffic hazards that property owners have had to put up with for more than 10 years. Even worse, the views of neighbors would be blocked by “a mountain of garbage,” he said. Some residents would lose sweeping ocean views, he said.

Waste Management of San Diego, which is seeking the right to build a landfill of equal capacity at a site east of Interstate 15, was even more insistent about the need to close the county dump, citing the county’s own environmental impact report as proof that the 11-year-old landfill is contaminating ground water.

“Yes, it would be very expensive to close the San Marcos landfill and truck trash to the Sycamore Canyon landfill,” Waste Management spokesman Rick Daniels said. He estimated that it would add $3.25 to $3.50 a month to the average coastal residential trash bill, and $3 or less to inland residents’ bills to haul the trash an additional 30 miles to the alternate site between Lakeside and Santee.

The supervisors “can’t in good conscience vote to expand a landfill that their own studies have shown is polluting the ground water and for which they have no solution,” Daniels said.

Daniels’ company is proposing to build and operate a landfill in Gregory Canyon, which would be lined to prevent the seepage of contaminants that has occurred at the unlined portions of the San Marcos dump. He estimates that the Gregory Canyon site, which is off California 76 near Pala, would be ready for use by 1993 and would serve the growing North County area for 14 to 20 years, well into the 21st Century.

“By then, there will need to be a regional long-term solution to waste disposal,” he said. “Probably it will be to send the area’s trash by rail out to the desert for disposal.” Until Gregory Canyon opens, Daniels said, the county should cut its risk of liability by closing down the San Marcos landfill and begin cleaning up the past and present seepage polluting the area.

Several other opponents of the San Marcos landfill expansion proposed that the dump be expanded into the 16-acre sector reserved for the proposed recycling and waste-to-energy burning plant. Originally scheduled to be built in 1984, the proposed plant has been delayed by environmental concerns and contract disputes between the county and private firms proposing to build and operate the dump.

Mayor Thibadeau agreed that the San Marcos landfill threatens to contaminate ground water and nearby streams, as well as pollute the immediate vicinity with dust and noise and dangerous gases. His solution is construction of the $300-million trash-to-energy plant on a 16-acre site next to the landfill.

Thibadeau warned county supervisors that San Marcos will not even consider granting a permit to expand the landfill until the county meets the city’s terms. The terms are aimed at forcing other North County communities to commit their entire trash flow to the future trash-to-energy plant, face stiff penalties for refusing or find another place to dispose of their refuse.

“We’re playing hardball now,” Thibadeau said. “Some people have accused me of being a blackmailer, a pirate and other terms, but that is not the case. We are simply saying that, in order to move ahead to the only regional solution to the trash disposal problem, we are setting down rules. If others don’t follow them, they can take their trash elsewhere, not here.”

Thibadeau’s conditions for granting a permit to the county for expansion of the landfill include:

* Imposition of a $10 a ton “host fee” on all trash that goes into the landfill, raising the existing $18 a ton tipping fee to $28. The $10 fee would go to the city for its use in repairing damages and alleviating the nuisance of the landfill. At the current rate of 1.3 million tons per year dumped there, San Marcos would receive $13 million annually from the fee.

* Requirement that every city that uses the San Marcos landfill sign an agreement pledging to commit all its future trash to the trash-to-energy plant or face “surcharges” that would rise to astronomical levels of nearly $200 a ton. The penalties would be split 25% to the county, 25% to the cities, and 50% distributed equally among the North County cities that committed their trash to the San Marcos facility.

* Commitment by the county to immediate construction of a recycling facility, the first phase of the trash-to-energy plant, in San Marcos.

Escondido, Encinitas and Carlsbad--three cities that contain about half the North County population--are opposed to the plant because of potential air pollution and cost.

“We don’t need them,” Thibadeau said. “The (trash-to-energy) plant would only process about 560,000 tons a year, which can be supplied without those cities. But, we do need the commitments. Let those cities opposed to this pay the surcharges or find their own solution somewhere else.”

If the county will not agree to San Marcos’ conditions, Thibadeau said, “we’ll go to Plan B,” which he described only as “a leg-breaker.”