OXNARD : Site Suggested for Recycling Plant

An Oxnard agriculture field is the best location for a $20-million recycling center and sewage sludge composting plant, an environmental study released Tuesday says.

The field, south of Sturgis Road between Rice Road and Del Norte Boulevard, is the best of four sites evaluated for a 30-acre to 50-acre facility to handle up to 850 tons of waste a day, said Wayne Bruce, manager of the Ventura Regional Sanitation District.

When it is operating in 1993, the plant could recycle waste from the cities of Oxnard, Camarillo, Port Hueneme, Santa Paula and Fillmore, Bruce said. But so far, no cities have contracted with the district.

“Most of the cities have the attitude that they want to keep their options open,” Bruce said.

The cities are reluctant to commit to the recycling center until they have more information, Camarillo City Manager J. William Little said.

“Until they come up with cost figures, neither we nor anyone else can commit,” Little said.

The Regional Sanitation District, a public agency governed by a board of elected officials from member cities, is expected to decide whether to buy property in February, Bruce said.

At the center, trucks will dump their loads into a large building where the waste will be sorted by hand to remove cardboard, metals, glass, plastic, yard waste and other recyclable material. The remainder will be trucked to the landfill.

The center will also include an area where sewage sludge is dried out and mixed with yard wastes to be used as mulch.