OXNARD : Landfill Opponents Gather Signatures

Opponents of the Bailard Landfill are gathering signatures on a petition that urges the closure of the landfill when its operating permit runs out in December, 1993.

Patrick Forrest, secretary-treasurer of Voters Against Bailard, said Tuesday that petitions with 235 signatures were turned in to the Ventura county clerk Tuesday. They were given to Oxnard city officials Monday.

“We’ve had it,” Forrest said. “Why should we be the dumping ground for the county?” he said, referring to the Oxnard landfill that opened in the 1960s. “We’ve done our share.”

Although the landfill is scheduled to close next year, the Ventura Regional Sanitation District wants to keep it open until 1996 or 1997 because the grading plan for the 180-acre facility is unfinished and additional space is available for dumping. A public hearing on the request for a permit extension is scheduled for Aug. 19 at 7 p.m. in the Ventura Room of the Oxnard Community Center.

The petition cites health, safety and financial concerns in its demand that the landfill be closed.

Forrest said the group will continue gathering signatures until the hearing, in hopes of collecting 1,000 or 2,000.

“People live out there,” he said, adding that a new high school is expected to be built nearby.

The 22 nuns who live at Sister Servants of Mary, 3739 W. Gonzales Road, are among the landfill’s closest neighbors.

The sisters are opposed to keeping the landfill open, but their order prohibits them from being politically active in the fight to close it down, according to one of the sisters, who asked not to be identified.

“We’ve been praying for a long time that it will be closed,” she said. “We can see it from our windows. It doesn’t look nice. It should be hidden away from view.”

But even if the landfill closes in 1993, the unfinished grading work would still have to be addressed, said Gary Haden, solid operations manager for the district. He said the grading plan was drawn up and initiated in the 1970s.