Company Stalls Weldon Canyon Landfill Project : Sanitation: Waste Management wants time to discuss hiring county planners to expand an environmental study.

Forced by Ventura County to expand a study of the proposed landfill site at Weldon Canyon, Waste Management officials said they have stalled the project while they negotiate to save money by hiring county planners instead of a private firm.

Officials at Waste Management of California said Thursday that they are reluctant to pay the rates that private planners will charge to expand the environmental impact report to meet county requirements.

County planners could do the work for less, helping to trim the current estimated $300,000 price tag for expanding the environmental report, said Jim Jevens, project manager for Waste Management.

“We are a big company, and we’re not in the business of writing blank checks,” Jevens said. “We have approached county staff with this concern, and they’re looking for a way in which they might be able to do some of the work internally, with their staff, at half the cost.”

Jevens said the company also needs the time to weigh its options for the landfill, but refused to say whether those included backing out of the project.

County planners said they agreed that the company needs more time to consider its role in the landfill plan, and recommended that the Board of Supervisors vote Tuesday to shelve the matter indefinitely.

“We didn’t think it was fair to the board or to the public to keep continuing it (on the supervisors’ agenda) every week,” said Scott Ellison, a county planner in charge of the Weldon Canyon permit.

In April, the Board of Supervisors rejected the environmental report for the proposed 110-acre, $30-million landfill at Weldon Canyon after Ojai Valley residents and environmental groups had appealed approval of the report by top county planners.

The residents had accused county planners of suppressing a secret study that found four other locations superior to the proposed Weldon Canyon site.

Upon rejecting the environmental report, the supervisors ordered that the report be expanded to include four other sites near the Weldon Canyon site and four alternative dumps outside the county--including one in East Carbon, Utah.

Waste Management is already contemplating spending $100,000 to $150,000 to expand its own staff to do some of the work on the environmental report, Jevens said.

Additional work by consultants Broan and Caldwell that would cost $149,000 could be done for less by county planners instead, he said.

After spending $1 million on the environmental report so far, Waste Management can afford the extra expense, but would rather not cover all of it, Jevens said.

In the coming weeks, Waste Management will re-examine its role in the project and negotiate an agreement to hire the county for some of the work in hopes of deciding by Aug. 1 whether to proceed, he said.

Ellison, the county planner in charge of the Weldon Canyon permit, said county staff may do a better job than private planners because they are more familiar with the project, which also is not competing with other projects for their attention.

John K. Flynn, the only supervisor to oppose expanding the environmental report, blamed the other four supervisors for contributing to the delay in the project.

“I just think the issue ought to come before the board, and the board ought to vote on it one way or the other,” Flynn said.

And the Ventura County Grand Jury’s annual report last week urged swift approval of the Weldon Canyon project, calling it “the most viable option available” for waste disposal in the west county.

But Supervisor Susan K. Lacey, whose district includes the Weldon Canyon site, said Waste Management should be allowed the delay if it will lead to more details being added to the environmental report.

“I’m not going to be pushed into making a judgment without all the proper and relevant information,” she said.