SANTA PAULA : Council Members Sidestep Dispute Over Waste Disposal

The Santa Paula City Council has sidestepped a dispute over competing approaches to recycling and solid-waste disposal in Ventura County by voting to withhold support from either side.

Instead, Councilman Les H. Maland called for the creation of an experimental garden-waste composting facility at the Toland landfill near Santa Paula that he said would help all the county’s cities solve their problems with solid waste.

After a lengthy discussion, the council on Monday voted to refrain from endorsing a joint-power agreement proposed by the Ventura County Waste Commission that would create a Waste Processing and Transfer Authority.

But the council reserved the right to join the proposed countywide body at a later date.

By withholding its outright approval, the council also indicated that it would stay out of a dispute between the county Waste Commission and the Ventura Regional Sanitation District over where to build a recycling and transfer station.

Public officials consider recycling centers an essential part of any effort to meet state-mandated goals to reduce the amount of trash going to landfills by 25% by 1995 and by 50% by 2000.

The Waste Commission has set a goal of creating two recycling stations in the county, but has refused to endorse a specific site.

Recently, though, Oxnard joined forces with the Regional Sanitation District to pursue a recycling facility in Oxnard, saying the time that the city needed to meet its state goal was quickly running out.

Santa Paula Mayor Alfonso C. Urias criticized Oxnard’s decision, saying the city had jumped the gun on a recycling facility, and pressed the council to support the Waste Commission’s joint-power authority.

“If we don’t get started, 1995 will come in another 2 1/2 years and we won’t be close to meeting our goals,” Urias said.

But Maland said that Santa Paula, because it is a small city with less of a problem than other cities, had little to lose by waiting before it backs a proposal.

Maland called for the Regional Sanitation District to initiate a composting program at the Toland landfill east of Santa Paula as a way of recycling garden wastes.

According to Maland, area cities could meet the state goals for 1995 by simply implementing a program to recycle garden clippings.

“If we can get that, we can meet the goal whether we can market (composted fertilizer) or not,” Maland said.