OXNARD : Dump’s Health Risks Called Unavoidable

Increased pollution from traffic, foul odors, dust and a significant cancer risk at Bailard Landfill in Oxnard are all unavoidable impacts of continued operations there, an environmental analysis released Thursday concludes.

The risk of contracting cancer from toxic pollutants is significant at the landfill and on unoccupied farmland immediately surrounding it, but does not pose a danger to nearby residential tracts, the report says.

The report was conducted to address the potential environmental effects of a proposal to continue Bailard’s operations past December, 1993, when the landfill is scheduled to close. The Ventura Regional Sanitation District is seeking permits from county and state agencies to keep the landfill open until May, 1997, because a replacement landfill in Weldon Canyon may not be ready before Bailard’s closure.

Clinton Whitney, the sanitation district’s general manager, said there are no surprises in the report. The district’s board received copies of it Thursday and will soon schedule public hearings, he said.

“I think the staff would have alerted the board (to any surprises) if we knew there was something in there,” Whitney said.

Pollutants released from escaping gas and heavy truck traffic directly at the site could cause cancer in higher-than-usual rates if a human was exposed to it constantly for a lifetime, the report by Environmental Solutions Inc. says. But workers at the landfill, just north of the intersection of Gonzales Road and Victoria Avenue, are not at risk because they are there only sporadically, the report says.

Farmland immediately next to the landfill also is exposed to significant levels of toxins, but is unoccupied. Nearby occupied dwellings, including the Sister Servants of Mary Convent, the River Ridge residential subdivision and the proposed new site for Oxnard High School, are not at risk, the analysis said.

The public has 45 days to comment on the environmental analysis. Written comments will be taken through Aug. 31.