Trash Smells of Cash for Pomona, Azusa : Waste: The two cities are coming up with plans for trash receiving and recycling facilities. Pomona could earn up to to $2 million a year from the center.

Let other cities trash the idea. Pomona thinks $2 million a year for accepting their neighbors’ garbage is nothing to sniff at. And Azusa wants to jump on the trash bandwagon, too.

County officials say Pomona recently became the first San Gabriel Valley city to ask developers to draw up plans for a trash receiving and recycling facility--a kind of way-station in which trash from half a dozen other cities would be trucked to Pomona, picked over for recyclables, then shipped by rail or truck to a dump.

Meanwhile, the Azusa City Council has embarked on a similar project. It approved a 90-day agreement Monday with CMRR Inc. of San Dimas to draft a proposal for a city-owned trash receiving and sorting facility to serve Azusa and neighboring cities. Under the Azusa plan, the city would issue tax-exempt bonds to finance construction and would own the facility, but would award a contract to operate it.

Officials say that both plants could be in operation in two years, although there are many uncertainties, including a lengthy permit process.

Although Pomona and Azusa are the first to consider the idea of trash receiving and sorting facilities, they may not be the last, said Steve Maguin, head of solid waste management for the county Sanitation Districts.

Maguin said state legislation compelling cities to reduce their shipment of trash to landfills by 25% by 1995 and 50% by 2000 will force cities to use materials recovery facilities to attain trash reduction goals.

Curbside recycling alone is not enough, he said.

Robert DeLoach, Pomona public works director, said five companies submitted proposals this month to build and operate trash centers, and the City Council will be asked to select one by the middle of March. The city would make money by levying a tax on the fee charged to rubbish haulers to unload their trash and by sharing in revenue from the sale of recyclables.

The facility would be enclosed and resemble a warehouse instead of a landfill. Proponents say there would be no odors to bother neighbors. The main drawback would be the traffic from trash trucks going to and from the facility.

The plants would be part of a long-range solution to the Los Angeles County problem of dwindling landfill space. Trash that cannot be recycled could be shipped to proposed landfills in remote desert locations.

DeLoach said Pomona is considering a plant that could handle 3,000 tons of trash a day, including the 700 to 800 tons that are collected daily in Pomona. He said that according to various estimates, the city’s income could range from $500,000 to $2 million a year.

The trash project is especially attractive to Pomona because the city is facing a predicted budget deficit of $3.8 million next year unless it cuts expenditures or raises new revenue.

Bruce Milne, CMRR vice president, said the Azusa project would handle 2,000 to 3,000 tons of trash a day. An ideal location, he said, would be the Azusa Land Reclamation Co. landfill, though other sites also will be explored.

The San Gabriel Valley generates about 8,500 tons of trash a day, so three or four materials recovery facilities could serve the entire area, Milne said.