COUNTYWIDE : Board Approves New Landfill Rules

Stringent new regulations that require operators of four Ventura County landfills to improve the collection of leaking gas that contributes to air pollution were approved Tuesday by the County Board of Supervisors.

The leaking gas, caused by rotting garbage, is primarily methane and carbon dioxide. It is now collected through vacuum pipes placed throughout the landfills.

The new regulations require that the operators also use portable, hand-held monitors to detect gas leaks on the surfaces of the dumps and patch leaks when they are found.

Three of the landfills--Santa Clara, Coastal and Bailard--are located side by side along the Santa Clara River in or near Oxnard. They belong to the Ventura Regional Sanitation District. A fourth dump near Simi Valley is run by Waste Management of California.

It will cost about $150,000 a year per landfill for the additional monitoring, said David Burkhart, assistant general manager of the sanitation district.

No surface monitoring has been done, so no one knows how much gas escapes from landfills, said Burkhart and air pollution officials. Once the surface monitoring is combined with the existing vacuum systems, officials will be able to determine how much gas should be collected.

If a landfill operator collects less than 90% of this level for three months, it must reinspect the surface for all leaks, the rules say.

The existing vacuum pipes already collect millions of cubic feet of gas per year at each landfill, according to the Air Pollution Control District.

For example, the system at the closed Santa Clara Landfill, which is covered over by part of the River Ridge Golf Course in Oxnard, collects 340 million cubic feet of gas a year, air pollution officials said.

Burkhart said the gas is burned to generate electricity for 3,000 homes.

The Toland Road Landfill near Santa Paula is not required to collect leaking gases because it is relatively small. But it will have to abide by the new rules by about 1996.