Supervisors Reject Study on Impact of Landfill Plan : Weldon Canyon: The action follows an appeal by Ojai and environmental groups that had challenged the report’s adequacy.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday put the brakes on the proposed Weldon Canyon landfill so that board members can consider additional dump sites and study a proposal to ship the county’s trash out of state.

The board’s 4-1 decision to reject the environmental impact report on Weldon Canyon also allows time for a group of Ojai Valley residents to commission an environmental study of the dump site, which could increase air pollution in their community.

Supervisor John K. Flynn, who cast the dissenting vote, criticized his colleagues for having a “lack of will” to move forward with selecting a dump site for western county residents, a process that has already taken six years.

“At the rate we’re going, it will be another two years before this is back before the board,” he said. “Let’s vote on the (Weldon) canyon site. We can’t do it if we delay it.”

Flynn’s comments drew a sharp response from Supervisor Maggie Erickson Kildee: “I want the information before I make a decision. This will take two months, not two years.”

The board’s decision was unexpected. The city of Ojai and three environmental groups opposing the Weldon Canyon site had challenged the adequacy of the environmental report and appealed to the board.

The county’s top planners had recommended that the board deny the appeal. But instead, the supervisors granted the appeal and sent the environmental impact report back to county staff for revision.

The time needed for such revisions will allow county planners to analyze a proposal to haul the county’s trash by rail to a dump in Utah. The idea was advanced last week by Flynn and Erickson Kildee.

Under the proposal, waste would be shipped across Northern California and parts of Nevada to a massive landfill under construction in East Carbon City, Utah, about 130 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.

The delay will also give the Ojai Valley Assn. for Clean Air, a group of about 100 prominent landowners and business people, time to commission an independent environmental review of the Weldon site, located north of Ventura near the mouth of the Ojai Valley.

Carl Huntsinger, president of the group, said the cost of hiring a company to conduct the study would run more than $100,000. He said his group, which claims to be neutral on the issue, has already collected $50,000 in pledges from members.

The privately financed study would consider whether alternative sites for a landfill were fully examined along with Weldon Canyon, the site identified in a county environmental impact report as the best place for a new dump, Huntsinger said.

It would also study in more detail the impact that the landfill would have on air pollution in the Ojai Valley.

The group is calling for the landfill operators to offset any increase in air pollution by helping other businesses reduce their pollution by an equal amount. The group also wants an environmental review of the landfill operation every five years.

The group intends to have its study done by Environ, an Emeryville-based company that has studied other landfill projects. When the county revises its environmental impact report, the group said it wants its independent findings to be included in the final report.

In the revision ordered by the supervisors, county planners will also consider at least four other sites for the landfill, all near the Weldon site. Three of the sites--Canada Seca, the head of Leon Canyon, and a location near Leon and Hall canyons--are east of California 33. The fourth, Rancho San Miguelito, is west of the highway near Taylor Ranch.

The other sites surfaced last week when Ojai city officials accused county planners of suppressing a study that concluded that the four sites were superior to the Weldon site. The study was identified by planning officials as a “quickie analysis” of 21 sites in November.

Officials from Waste Management of California, the company that wants to spend $30 million to build the 110-acre landfill at Weldon Canyon, urged supervisors not to delay the process and to deny the opponents’ appeals.

“Please do not allow the opponents of this project to continue to manipulate the process with further delaying tactics,” Jim Jevens, project manager for Waste Management, said in a statement.

The city of Ojai, Citizens to Preserve the Ojai, the Environmental Coalition of Ventura County and the Ojai Valley Assn. for Clean Air cited 38 reasons in objecting to the environmental report’s approval by top county staff. Two key complaints were that it failed to examine alternative sites and that it did not include ways to minimize the landfill’s impact on air quality.

Of key concern to some was whether dust from the landfill would increase the cases of Valley fever, a flu-like illness. Dr. Hans Einstein, medical director of Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, has already warned the supervisors that dust can spread the virus.

Barbara Thorpe, a nurse and California State University nursing administrator, said at least 60 cases of Valley fever have been diagnosed in Ventura County since December. The cases have been reported by seven physicians in contact with Einstein, she said. She said the fever has caused two deaths in Ventura County in 1992.

Proposed Landfill Sites

County planners’ rankings of proposed landfill sites in November.

1. Canada Seca

2. Rancho San Miguelito

3. Head of Leon Canyon

4. Near Leon and Hall canyons

5. Weldon Canyon