Judge’s Ruling May Aid Bid to Enlarge Dump : Trash: Decision on EIR appears to provide county with quick fix in attempt to keep San Marcos landfill open.

Efforts by the San Diego County Public Works Department to expand the San Marcos landfill in quick fashion--and sidestep an immediate garbage crisis--remained intact Monday after a Superior Court ruling.

Though Judge Judith McConnell ruled that the county must still fix a flawed environmental impact report that was to have paved the way for the landfill to be expanded, she didn’t specifically order that an entirely new EIR be completed--a process that would have delayed the expansion by a year.

Instead, McConnell ordered the county to report back to her on how it proposes to repair the EIR to her satisfaction--something that county officials believe they have already done.

McConnell’s ruling, made Friday and received Monday by the county--formalized a finding McConnell issued last month in which she declared that the environmental impact report was inadequate and ordered that the expansion be put on hold. She said the county failed to adequately circulate the EIR for public review and failed, among other things, to take into account the environmental consequences of using clay liners to expand the existing dump.

Opponents of the landfill’s expansion had argued that an entirely new environmental impact report should be written, correcting the earlier version by addressing such issues as increased truck traffic caused by delivering clay to the landfill site. After writing the new EIR, it would have to be circulated among the various public agencies that need to review and approve it.

But writing and circulating the new EIR would delay the landfill expansion by a year, long after the dump would reach its current capacity and forcing county officials to decide what to do with North County’s garbage in the meantime.

Deputy County Counsel Scott H. Peters, who on Monday received McConnell’s ruling, said it gives the county the opportunity to argue that it already has made the fixes the judge has sought.

The county Board of Supervisors on July 14 recertified the EIR after amending it to include the fixes they believed were sought by the judge, Peters said. That recertification--versus rewriting and recirculating an entirely new environmental impact report--would dramatically shorten the bureaucratic process and allow the expansion of the landfill before it hits capacity.

Peters said the county will now try to show McConnell that the corrections she formally sought in Monday’s ruling have already been made. A hearing date on that issue has not yet been set.

Michael Hogan, attorney for Christward Ministry, which brought the legal action challenging the EIR’s validity, could not be reached for comment.