OJAI : Group Criticizes Report on Landfill

A study released by a group of Ojai area residents concludes that a 1985 county report recommending Weldon Canyon as an “environmentally sound” landfill site is flawed.

The Ojai Valley Assn. for Clean Air, which says it is neutral on the controversial Weldon Canyon site, released the study Tuesday. The group commissioned Environ Corp. of Emeryville, Calif., to review the County Solid Waste Management Plan.

Environ declined to endorse the county report’s findings.

But Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn, who favors the Weldon site, said the county’s 1985 study was “pretty darn thorough.”

A proposal by Waste Management of North America to build a 110-acre, $30-million landfill in Weldon Canyon north of Ventura has been on hold since April when the Board of Supervisors told planners to study four other potential landfill sites and to consider a plan to ship county trash by rail out of state.

Environ’s report states that the 1985 study ignored the impact of dust, noise and litter. Nor did it look at the presence of wetlands.

The study also contended that not all possible sites were evaluated and that others were erroneously eliminated because of resistance from residents. Smaller landfill sites should also have been considered, Environ said.

Flynn said the air pollution problem will be mitigated considerably once a planned resource recovery center is in place to process and recycle waste.

“We won’t have a multitude of little garbage trucks climbing up to Weldon Canyon,” he said. Whatever waste is left over at the center would then be transported by large truck to the landfill.

County planner Scott Ellison said the 1985 study looked at air quality indirectly in terms of how far trucks would travel.

“Weldon was as close as you could get to the central site,” he said.

At the time the study was done it was believed that the impact on air quality would be the same at all the sites under consideration, he said.