North County Cities Drafting Trash Contingency Plan

With North County’s garbage disposal reaching the critical stage, officials in the cities of Carlsbad, Oceanside and Escondido are discussing the creation of a joint powers authority to handle the problem should San Diego County government fail.

The issue before the county is whether it will have a place to throw away North County’s garbage because its landfill in San Marcos will be filled by Oct. 1.

The county planned to expand the landfill, but a Superior Court judge said the requisite environmental impact report didn’t pass muster, and now county officials are in a crisis mode looking for answers on where to put the region’s refuse.

Officials in Carlsbad, Oceanside and Escondido have long been critical of the county’s management of shrinking landfill space and its failure to develop a new North County landfill.

Saying that they’re acting prudently, not rebelliously, the cities proposed a joint powers authority that would give them the multi-city clout to dispose of their own garbage if the problem ends up in their lap.

On Tuesday night, the Carlsbad City Council signed the pact, which now goes back to Escondido and Oceanside for adoption after Carlsbad made some minor changes in its wording.

“Some of the elected officials in North County have lost faith in the county’s ability to provide the (trash) transfer and disposal service in a timely and cost-effective manner, and we believe it’s prudent to develop our own alternatives to handle it in case the county can’t,” said Frank Mannen, assistant city manager in Carlsbad.

“We still believe in a countywide system. That makes sense and we hope that can still work. And our primary objective is to have a landfill in North County,” Mannen said. “But it’s prudent to develop a back-up position, so we can go our own way if we have to.”

Carlsbad Mayor Bud Lewis said, “We don’t want to leave the county, but it’s been so inept, we need this (joint powers authority) as a fall-back, so we can look at other alternatives on our own.”

Already, the three cities have met with Campo Indian leaders on their proposal to develop a landfill on their East County reservation.

In another development, county officials have transferred the task of trash management from its Department of Public Works to Lari Sheehan, the county’s deputy chief administrative officer.

The decision by David Janssen, the county’s chief administrative officer, puts Sheehan in command of the trash crisis.

Bill Worrell, the deputy director of public works who has overseen the trash management issue, will now report directly to Sheehan rather than his old boss, Public Works director Granville Bowman.

“The issues surrounding garbage are becoming increasingly complex and they deserve closer attention of our office,” Janssen said.