Judge OKs Expansion of San Marcos Dump : Trash: The revised environmental impact report is approved, but mayor says he’ll fight the plan.

SAN DIEGO — A trash crisis in northern San Diego County was averted at least for a day when a judge on Monday finally blessed an environmental impact report that paves the way for expansion of the brimming San Marcos landfill.

Superior Court Judge Judith McConnell, who stalled the landfill expansion because of the faulty environmental report, said Monday that the county had fixed it to her satisfaction. Without her approval, county officials faced the possibility of having nowhere to put North County’s trash come Oct. 1, when the landfill is expected to reach capacity.

But now the county’s attempt to increase the size of the dump, by heaping 200 feet of trash atop the existing 750 feet of garbage, moves to a more volatile arena.

Tonight, the county will ask the San Marcos City Council for permission to expand the dump, a decision steeped in politics and money.

The mayor of San Marcos says he will oppose the landfill expansion because he’s tired of dealing with the problem, period. Mayor Lee Thibadeau said he is weary of being battered by lawsuits from other cities and property owners near the landfill who have fought the dump’s expansion and wants to quit the garbage business altogether and foist the problem on someone else.

Other council members say they will consider allowing the expansion if the people who send garbage to San Marcos will pay to compensate the city for shouldering the landfill burden.

Because the landfill is a county government operation, such a “host fee” would have to be assessed of everyone who generates garbage in San Diego County, outside of the city of San Diego itself because it operates its own garbage dump.

The county trash collection fees would generate millions of dollars of revenue not only for San Marcos but for the cities of San Diego and Chula Vista as well, because they too host landfills used by the county.

Traffic access to the county’s Sycamore landfill near Santee is through the city of San Diego, and the entrance booth to the county’s Otay landfill in South County is in Chula Vista.

Already, city managers from throughout the county have been meeting quietly with county officials to negotiate a fee that they think would be fair for their residents to pay the trash haulers, for ultimate collection by the host cities.

The negotiations have been going on for several weeks and may culminate tonight when the county formally asks San Marcos council members to OK expansion of the 13-year-old dump.

If the various city representatives can reach agreement among themselves by tonight, they’re expected to pledge their support of a host fee for San Marcos, insiders say. The possibility exists, too, that the other cities will not have come to an agreement on a host fee formula, and the decision by the San Marcos City Council will be delayed until Sept. 8, adding to the county’s anxiety.

San Marcos Councilman Mike Preston said he, for one, will not approve the expansion unless his city is allowed to collect a host fee, and if the cities feeding garbage into San Marcos guarantee the flow of garbage--and income--to the city.

The San Marcos council previously approved the conditional use permit allowing the landfill’s expansion, but rescinded it several weeks ago because of the court’s ruling that the county’s EIR was insufficient on several grounds. McConnell’s ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by Christward Ministry, a religious retreat near the San Marcos dump.

County officials made some quick fixes to the EIR, and convinced McConnell that the main issue--whether the county had sufficiently considered the environmental consequences of trucking in clay to cap the top of the dump--was resolved.

McConnell said the EIR did not need to be recirculated among various public agencies, a process that would take months.

Had the judge ruled against the county, it would have delayed the landfill expansion for nearly a year, putting county officials in the politically nightmarish position of deciding what to do with North County’s garbage in the meantime.

“The judge acclaimed our innocence,” said Deborah Castillo, spokeswoman for the county’s Department of Public Works, which oversees the countywide system of solid waste management.

Michael Hogan, attorney for Christward Ministry, said his client hadn’t yet decided whether to appeal McConnell’s ruling, but credited the judge for a fair hearing on the issue.

So now the county’s trash bureaucrats will turn their attention to the San Marcos City Council.

Said Councilman Preston, “If the county can bring to the meeting a promise from the cities that they will guarantee trash flow, and pay a host fee, I’ll vote to reinstate” the conditional use permit.

Councilwoman Pia Harris wouldn’t commit herself to the landfill’s expansion or closure until after the public hearing but said, “I’ve always felt the landfill book should be closed.”

If the county wins San Marcos’ approval, it must take its expansion request to the state’s Integrated Waste Management Board, which oversees landfills in California.

While its role is essentially to confirm that the county has met all the expansion requirements placed on it by other agencies, the state board’s own staff is also relying on its own engineering studies as it debates the landfill expansion, Castillo said.

The state panel is expected to discuss the San Marcos dump expansion when it meets in Fresno on Sept. 23.

In the meantime, clay material to top off the existing 750 feet of garbage in San Marcos will be trucked onto the site beginning later this week, Castillo said.

“We need the clay, whether we expand the landfill or close it,” Castillo said.

If the expansion is allowed, the county hopes to eke out another seven years of capacity from the San Marcos dump. By then, officials hope, they will have selected a new landfill site among four candidates in North County.