Hard Lesson on Landfills

The San Diego County Public Works Department’s (DPW) most recent list contains 16 sites under consideration for new North County landfills. From our home next to the San Marcos landfill, we have a front row seat to the debacle resulting from the DPW’s ineptitude. We want to educate our neighbors near these proposed sites on what to expect.

First, don’t be overwhelmed by the flurry of acronyms related to landfills: WTE, CEQA, DPW, DEIR, EIR, SWAT, MRF, RDF, RWQCB, CIWMB, APCD, EHS, LEA, PRP or EPA. Just remember that when a “sensitive receptor” is mentioned, that’s you, and if you are concerned about your property values or quality of life, you automatically become a NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard). No application or dues required. Oh, by the way, be sure to stock up on “vector” traps (that’s rats in DPW-speak).

When the Environmental Impact Report gets under way, don’t get the idea that its intent is to protect the environment. It only identifies what will be destroyed.

Thirteen years ago, when the county promoted the concept of a landfill to the citizens of Elfin Forest, they promised us that it would close the minute it reached capacity, and that a 200-acre park would be created there.

Instead of upholding its part of the “bargain,” the county increased the landfill’s capacity, blasting and crushing rocks 12 hours per day, for four months in the summer of 1989, forcing residents to stay inside to avoid choking in the dust, while drapes, carpets and sensitive computer equipment were ruined.

The DPW then dropped the big trash bomb, the landfill expansion. After all the assurances about a timely closure, the DPW mounted a sneak attack. Not only did the DPW not solicit community input prior to writing the environmental impact report, they did not announce its availability, except through the newspaper. We had to purchase a copy of the EIR for $25 or go to the local library to read it.

The expansion supposedly adds seven years to the landfill’s life. When the DPW’s figures are reviewed and analyzed in light of mandatory recycling, the expected life may be closer to 20 years.

If the landfill were the only issue, the story would end here, but the landfill draws other projects, like flies to trash: To scavenge the putrid gases generated by buried garbage, the county built a methane extraction plant. This facility was built next to existing homes, where the roar of its turbine engine can lull us to sleep on otherwise quiet evenings, instead of on the western edge of the landfill, where it might go unappreciated.

The landfill spawned a proposal for a carcinogen-spewing incinerator with its $125-million, soon-to-be-constructed front end disguised as a recycling facility. Not one to pass up a bargain, the DPW will operate this facility 18 hours a day, six days a week, for a minimum of 24 years. Such a deal! For the next 24 years, trucks will not only bring trash, but, after the landfill closes, they’ll be hauling away the shredded remains as well.

In November, 1990, the DPW decided that composting green waste would save landfill space. Yet mismanagement of a simple substance like grass clippings and leaves has resulted in tons of rotting matter, which can be smelled from as far as three miles away.

As the community turned its collective cheek, the next slap in the face came from the Encina Sewer District, which plans a sludge treatment facility on a 70-acre site next to the landfill.

Because Elfin Forest has been so adept at upholding its civic responsibilities, the DPW has chosen to “reward” this weary community with four more sites proposed within 5 miles of the current landfill.

If a landfill is slated for your community, you must do everything you can to educate yourself, keep informed and become part of the siting and monitoring process, because now, with 16 proposed landfill sites, NIMBY takes on a whole new meaning: Next, It Might Be You.

EVELYN ALEMANNI, Escondido