Critic Says District Shy of Funds to Close Dumps : Oxnard: Officials of the county’s largest trash-disposal agency dispute the figures regarding the Bailard and Coastal landfills.

The Ventura Regional Sanitation District, the county’s largest trash-disposal agency, has failed to set aside $20.8 million that it will need to close two old Oxnard-area landfills and maintain them during the next 30 years, a critic charged Tuesday.

The sanitation district acknowledged in a January report that $7.2 million in future expenses at the Coastal and Bailard dumps are unfunded.

But that amount is just one-third of what the district will have to pay over three decades, according to Gerard Kapuscik, manager of the Channel Islands Beach Community Services District.

“I’m saying their figures are incomplete, underestimated and inaccurate,” said Kapuscik, whose agency is a member of the sanitation district.

Sanitation district officials discounted Kapuscik’s conclusions, which were released Tuesday and detailed in an evening presentation to the Oxnard City Council.

District officials said Kapuscik had erroneously counted a $4.4-million expense at the Coastal dump that is covered by money in a special account. Kapuscik also cited an $8.4-million liability to maintain Bailard even though the district insists the obligation must be borne by the Bailard property owners, and has filed a lawsuit to press the issue.

“The $8.4 million is not a surprise, and the $4.4 million is wrong,” said David Burkhart, assistant general manager of the district. He said Kapuscik was right only about an $800,000 shortfall due to a decline in trash dumped at Bailard.

But Kay Martin, head of Ventura County’s separate rubbish department, said she has reviewed sanitation district documents and that Kapuscik’s findings appear to be accurate. She also said the district should have clearer bookkeeping.

“The point is that some clarifications are needed,” Martin said. “If they feel they have sufficient reserves to cover all this, then they probably need to indicate that more clearly.”

The sanitation district’s long-term obligations are important partly because Ventura County’s two major trash-disposal agencies--the sanitation district and the County Waste Commission--are considering a merger that would place Ventura County, its 10 cities and numerous special districts all under the aegis of a single countywide waste authority.

The waste authority would operate as a public utility and control all decisions on trash collection and disposal countywide. It is designed to end years of political bickering and wasteful competition for control of area landfills and recycling facilities.

As proposed, waste authority members would also share in paying off countywide waste-disposal obligations.

Moorpark and Simi Valley officials have said they will not join the new authority if they have to pay the debts of the sanitation district, of which the other eight cities are members.

“If picking up those liabilities is part of what we have to do to be in the new organization, then we just won’t be in it,” Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton said Tuesday.

Moorpark Councilman Scott Montgomery said Kapuscik’s report “hits the nail on the head. That’s just the kind of liability we were concerned about.”

Both Simi Valley and Moorpark have argued that the new waste authority should divide the liability for maintenance of old landfills and for cleanup of illegal dumps. Cities in the western, central and eastern parts of the county should pay only for problems in their areas, they said.

Martin, who with sanitation district General Manager Clint Whitney has directed merger talks since last July, said she expects changes in waste authority bylaws so liability is separated, as requested by Moorpark and Simi Valley.

Martin said the future obligations of cities is a major issue. And as the representative of the county Waste Commission, she has counted on the sanitation district to declare future expenses accurately.

“Everyone had gone along assuming the public entity that is operating the landfills is taking care of post-closure responsibilities,” she said. “But obviously the set-asides have not kept up with the liabilities.”

Burkhart said, however, that the sanitation district’s $7.2 million in unfunded liabilities have developed since last July and were reported promptly in its report last month. The district will be able to pay $7.2 million into a special account before Bailard’s scheduled closing in December, 1993, either through dumping fees or cuts in the district’s $34-million annual budget, he said.

Most of $4.5 million in unfunded expenses at the Coastal and Bailard dumps are the result of strict new air quality rules on disposing of landfill gas, Burkhart said. Another $2.2 million will pay for long-term monitoring of water beneath the district’s Coastal, Bailard and Santa Clara dumps in north Oxnard. The remaining $500,000 shortfall is the result of less-than-expected business at the Bailard dump, Burkhart said.

The extra obligations cited by Kapuscik are either nonexistent or not applicable at this point, he said. The district would have to pay $8.4 million more to maintain the Bailard dump for 30 years only if it loses its lawsuit against the Bailard family, which owns the dump, Burkhart said. The family agreed to pay maintenance costs at the dump after it closes, he said.

The possible $8.4-million payment has not been included in sanitation district reports because district board members already know about it, he said. Burkhart said the district has not tried to hide potential costs from the public.

“There’s no sinister motive here,” he said. “It’s a very complicated subject, and it’s difficult to simplify without being accused of trying to hide something.”

Kapuscik said in an interview that the sanitation district’s liability could increase another $15 million if it agrees to maintain its old Santa Clara dump for 30 years, as the city of Oxnard has requested. But sanitation district officials said they are not obligated to assume that responsibility.

Kapuscik, a longtime critic of the sanitation district, said the district’s failure to fully report its liabilities is another reason to close the Bailard landfill in 1993 as scheduled, and to replace it with the proposed Weldon Canyon dump north of Ventura.

The sanitation district has asked that it be allowed to operate Bailard into 1997, which would help spread closing costs and maintenance over a longer period.

Kapuscik said the sanitation district made the same argument before reopening the landfill in 1989, but still has not covered its obligations. “Why should that poor planning be rewarded?” he said.

Kapuscik, Martin and Craven all said that a countywide waste authority could pay for the sanitation district’s long-term obligations--whatever they turn out to be--by approving a surcharge on each ton dumped at the new west county landfill.

Kapuscik said the surcharge would be about $3 per ton, compared to the current dumping charge of $44.50 per ton.