North County Trash Diversion Rejected : Environment: Decision could delay attempt to extend life of San Marcos landfill.

The County Board of Supervisors, responding to protests from the cities of San Diego and Chula Vista despite North County’s increasingly critical trash crisis, Tuesday refused to temporarily divert garbage from the San Marcos landfill to sites in East and South County without an environmental impact assessment.

The decision could delay an attempt to extend the life of the San Marcos landfill for about six months--until approximately the time that the nearly full North County landfill is scheduled to reach capacity and close.

“There has been a consistent policy that these (North County) communities don’t want to accept responsibility for the waste stream they generate and they want to send it someplace else,” said South Bay Supervisor Brian Bilbray, who with Supervisors Leon Williams and Susan Golding defeated the diversion proposal. Supervisors John MacDonald and George Bailey voted for the plan.

County staffers had proposed to divert about 40% of the trash brought to the dump each month--about 26,000 tons--for seven months, to extend the life of North County’s only landfill while permits are sought to expand it. Under the plan, they sought emergency authority from the supervisors to send trash from commercial producers to the Sycamore landfill in San Diego and the Otay landfill in Chula Vista.

MacDonald, who represents North County, said that Tuesday’s vote would backfire by creating delays that could force the permanent closure of the San Marcos landfill. That would force diversion of all the 60,000 to 70,000 tons of trash dumped each month.

“This is an emergency that we must deal with, rather than put off,” MacDonald said. “We are out of time.”

With the siting of a new landfill at least three to five years away and a proposal to build a refuse incinerator defeated by the supervisors last month, expansion of the San Marcos facility is seen as the only way to handle the ever-growing trash stream produced by the burgeoning North County.

The expansion has been delayed by the denial of a permit from the Regional Water Quality Control Board and a Superior Court judge’s ruling that the environmental impact review of the expansion is inadequate.

The emergency diversion plan, which would have put 180 trash trucks on the road for long round-trips, drew protests over traffic congestion and air pollution from elected officials of both cities.

They also protested the request to accommodate North County’s trash while cities in that part of the county continue to oppose the permanent selection of a new landfill site.

“After six years of talk about the necessity of siting new landfills in this region, no progress has been made,” San Diego City Councilwoman Judy McCarty told the supervisors Tuesday.

“I am told by your staff that it will be another two years before this board is scheduled to designate a new North County landfill. If you do make a decision at that time, it could be another three years or more before you can get all the necessary permits and settle the inevitable lawsuits.”

As operators of the county’s landfills, the supervisors have the authority to divert trash where they choose. But the San Diego City Council has scheduled hearings to determine whether it can block trash hauling to landfills within the city limits.