Supervisors to Consider Buying ‘Wastemobile’ for Toxic Trash : Environment: The plan calls for sharing costs with Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks. The vehicle would visit each east county community twice a year.

The Board of Supervisors will vote on a proposal today to buy Ventura County’s first “toxic wastemobile” to help residents dispose of motor oil, paints, pesticides and antifreeze.

If the board approves the proposal, the county would join forces with the cities of Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks to purchase the wastemobile, a specially designed storage building mounted on a semi-truck trailer that would travel from community to community in the east county.

County officials say the wastemobile would reduce illegal waste dumping because residents would no longer have to drive to the landfill to get rid of hazardous waste, or wait for the one day each year in which cities set up sites to accept car batteries and other non-disposable waste.

The wastemobile would be a much-needed weapon against illegal dumping, which is rampant in the county, county officials said.

A trash study conducted by the county last year concluded that residents in unincorporated communities produce an average of 15 tons per community of household hazardous waste annually, said Kay Martin, director of the county Solid Waste Management Department.

The study also concluded that 86% of the toxics are dumped illegally, she said.

“Because one-day collection programs are conducted infrequently, residents either throw their household hazardous waste into the trash or abandon the material at the residence, placing the responsibility for safe disposal on the next occupant,” Martin said.

The wastemobile program would cost about $450,000 for 12 months, county officials said. Each community would be visited by the wastemobile twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall.

The county and participating cities would contract the service from a trash company, which would supply the wastemobile and pay for the costs of disposing the toxic waste.

County officials hope to underwrite some of the program’s costs, and today the Board of Supervisors will vote on applying for a $120,000 state grant for that purpose.

In upcoming weeks, county officials plan to meet with Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley officials to hammer out an accord breaking down the program costs and establishing a schedule for the wastemobile.

If all goes well, the county would put the wastemobile program to bid in April, and it would begin operating in August or September, said Norma Camacho, county waste management analyst.

If the program is successful, county officials would expand it countywide, she said. Wastemobile programs exist in New England and in the state of Washington. Los Angeles County is also in the process of starting a wastemobile program, Camacho said.

Ventura County’s program is modeled after the one in King County, Wash., Camacho said. King County’s wastemobile comes equipped with storage space, a chemical lab, a bathroom, an emergency shower and a first aid station.

It is surrounded by its own portable barbed-wire fence, according to a 1990 article in the Household Hazardous Waste Management News, a trade newsletter.

“The biggest advantage is that the wastemobile is convenient and accessible to people,” Camacho said. “People won’t have to wait very long to get rid of their hazardous waste.”