32% Profit for Operator of Weldon Dump Is Criticized : Landfills: County officials say the proposed contract with Waste Management Inc. can be modified.

The head of the Ventura Regional Sanitation District has sharply criticized Ventura County officials for proposing that Waste Management Inc. earn a 32% profit operating a landfill at Weldon Canyon a few miles north of Ventura.

In a letter released this week, sanitation district General Manager Clint Whitney said his agency is appalled that the giant waste company could make $156 million operating the proposed landfill over the next 27 years.

“Has the county government lost its senses?” Whitney said.

County officials who helped negotiate the proposed Weldon Canyon contract stressed that the contract released last week is only a proposal.

“That’s a draft contract,” said Craig Phillips, program administrator for the county’s Solid Waste Management Department. “It can be modified. That’s why it was put out for public review.”

The document sets the terms for Waste Management of North America Inc., a subsidiary of the Illinois-based Waste Management Inc., to operate a 110-acre dump in Weldon Canyon, east of California 33 between Ventura and Ojai.

The county would not sign the contract unless the Board of Supervisors approves the dump when it votes on the issue in May, 1993, Phillips said.

As proposed, Waste Management would get a $41.20 fee for every ton of trash dumped at Weldon Canyon, projected to be about 12 million tons over the 27-year life of the landfill.

From each such fee, the company would pocket $13.13, or 32%, as profit, and pay another $5.63, or 14%, to the owner of the site.

Whitney and other sanitation district officials said they were upset about the amount of the payment to the site owner in addition to the profits for Waste Management.

“I think it’s very high,” said Camarillo Mayor Charlotte Craven, who also serves as president of the Ventura Regional Sanitation District board.

The sanitation district operates two of the county’s three existing dumps, including the Bailard Landfill in Oxnard, which would be replaced by the Weldon Canyon site.

And sanitation district officials argued that the proposed Weldon Canyon contract proves what they have said all along, that the west county should continue to have garbage dumps that are publicly owned and operated.

“With the publicly operated landfill, there is no profit” such as Waste Management would get from Weldon Canyon, said William Chiat, planning director for the sanitation district. “That would be an entirely new cost to ratepayers in this part of the county.”

However, Camarillo City Manager William Little, who was on the committee that negotiated the proposed contract, said the projected profits for Waste Management would not be as high as they appear.

“The profits are before taxes,” he said.

In addition, he said, the profits would be the company’s return for investing $30 million to build environmental protections into the site, including covering the bottom of the canyon with a liner to prevent contaminated water from seeping into the ground.

“You’re dealing with big numbers,” Little said. “That’s got to be kept in perspective. I don’t know if the public could do it any cheaper.”

Because of the large amount of money involved, Craven said the sanitation district or some other public agency should operate the gate, handling all the money paid by the private haulers who dump trash at the site.

“There’s going to be millions and millions of dollars coming through there,” she said. “To assure everything is done properly” public officials need to control the finances.