County Buys Time on Dump : Expanded Landfill Will Have to Do Until Long-Term Solution Is Found

The Board of Supervisors’ formal approval Tuesday on expansion of the Brea-Olinda landfill will buy the county time to consider how to dispose of its mounting piles of garbage so a long-term solution can be developed, officials said.

The Brea-Olinda fill had been scheduled to close in 1997 but will be extended through 2013 under an agreement that has won the grudging support of Brea officials and other area residents who had opposed expansion.

The landfill--covering 523 acres--now has a capacity of about 65.5 million cubic yards of garbage; under the new plans, it would be able to add another 46.8 million cubic yards of trash. The expansion will provide a buffer of about 20 years for the county to seek an alternative means of disposing of its waste, officials said.

In fact, three new canyon sites--West Fremont, Blind and Gypsum--are already being considered as candidates for long-term landfill needs. Officials say one solution may be to buy one or more of the canyons to be preserved for future use.

Acquiring, developing and converting a canyon into a landfill would cost millions of dollars, but there is little choice, officials said. “There is nothing that can really replace an urban landfill, except another one farther away,” said Frank R. Bowerman, director of the county’s Integrated Waste Management Department. “Recycling conserves the use of a landfill but doesn’t replace it.”

Bowerman said alternatives such as highly refined recycling, composting and burning are inadequate, while other futuristic technologies are simply unavailable.

Expanding other county landfills is also not feasible, said Bowerman, who called the Brea-Olinda site unique because it is actually two fills separated by a ridge of dirt. Instead of expanding the site outward, the fill will grow upward and the dirt ridge will be removed.

However, there is hope that new state laws could help extend the life of the county’s other landfills.

Those laws require all cities and counties to divert 25% of wastes from landfills by 1995, and 50% by 2000. Officials hope to meet the goals by reducing the sources of trash, increasing recycling and starting programs to reuse yard wastes and old tires.

It will be a hard job in Orange County, where officials estimate that residents throw out more garbage per person--about 11 pounds daily for every resident--than any other county in the state, producing 17,000 tons of trash each day.

Such profligacy is not cheap, officials said. Trash disposal costs have doubled in the last 10 years and could rise up to $30 a ton by 1995. The costs of the Brea-Olinda expansion--$7 million to $17 million by 2013--will mean higher gate fees.

But the Brea-Olinda dump will become one of the more environmentally sound of the county’s four landfills, Bowerman said. The agreement calls for building an underground collection and recovery system to contain harmful chemicals before they reach ground-water tables. The county will also install an irrigation system and landscape the canyon walls.

The agreement also calls for the county to monitor how traffic affects the area and to repair damaged or deteriorated roads.

And Bowerman said Brea will be able to use parts of the site for parks or recreation before the landfill is completed.

Expansion Approved The Brea-Olinda Landfill will have its capacity increased by nearly half. The landfill will grow higher to expand, rather than wider.

Current Expanded SIZE (in acres) 523 523 LIFESPAN (when filled) 1997 2013 CAPACITY 65.5 112.3 (cubic yards million million of garbage)

Source: Orange County Environmental Management Agency