Supervisors to Consider Impact Report on Landfill : Trash disposal: The hearing Tuesday is one in a series for the proposed Weldon Canyon dump. Environmental groups oppose the plans of Waste Management Inc.

Waste Management’s bid to dump western Ventura County’s trash into Weldon Canyon must pass yet another test Tuesday as the Ventura County Board of Supervisors listens to public criticism of an environmental report on the plan.

Meeting as the Environmental Report Review Committee, the supervisors will hold a public hearing on the third and latest draft of the report, which predicts the effect a Weldon Canyon landfill would have on surrounding neighborhoods, air, water and wildlife.

The new draft contains answers to supervisors’ earlier questions about alternatives to Weldon, examining four nearby canyons and proposals to ship the county’s trash to Riverside County or Utah by rail.

The report was approved in its second draft by county planners and engineers.

Once the new version is approved by the committee, the report must still go through final reviews by the county Planning Commission and then back to the Board of Supervisors, which could vote on the entire project by May.

Although the committee is usually composed of county planning, health and environmental officials, the supervisors take that role on projects as controversial as Weldon Canyon.

Before the supervisors act as the committee to approve or reject the environmental report, they must listen to a variety of complaints about trash giant Waste Management Inc.’s proposal to own and run a landfill for the county at Weldon Canyon, midway between Ventura and Ojai.

Waste Management officials say the company would assume all liabilities for the landfill during its life and for 30 years after it closes, giving the county a dump and cushioning it from risk while charging dumping fees of $40 to $45 per ton--a figure rivaling the $44.50-per-ton cost of dumping at Bailard.

But the Ventura County Environmental Coalition and Los Padres chapter of the Sierra Club object to the environmental report, saying it does not completely address the damage the landfill could do to all parts of Weldon Canyon, said Ruth Shimer, a member of both groups.

Waste Management proposes using two tributary canyons branching off from Weldon Canyon as landfill space.

Although county planners recommend confining the landfill to the north canyon, Waste Management has made no such promise, and the report does not say what the landfill could do to the south canyon, Shimer said.

“They made a study of the springs in the north canyon, but nobody ever studied the springs in the south canyon,” Shimer said. The report also does not outline the environmental impact of trash trucks coming in from outside the county or the state--an issue that has not been resolved, she said.

However, county planner Scott Ellison, who is overseeing the study, said the report does include information on potential effects to the south canyon.

The environmental report could also be attacked Tuesday by the city of Ojai, which has opposed previous drafts, and the Ojai Valley Assn. for Clean Air, which argues that air pollution from Ojai will be worse than the report anticipates.

The Ojai Valley Assn. for Clean Air has not decided whether to oppose the project itself, said Leone Webster, a group spokeswoman.

But the group is pushing Hammond Canyon, about four miles to the northeast of Weldon, as an alternative site because air pollution generated by trucks, equipment and decaying trash there will blow out over the Oxnard Plain instead of the Ojai Valley, she said.

“We just feel we (in Ojai) produce 7% of the trash, and with Weldon, we’d get 100% of the pollution,” Webster said. “It would destroy our community. . . . It’s just not fair.”

However, Ellison said the report does not support the association’s argument and that in fact some emissions from Weldon would reach the Oxnard Plain and some from Hammond Canyon would go to Ojai.

“The staff felt the second draft of the EIR was adequate,” he said.

The county has received 325 written comments on the third draft, and Tuesday’s hearing will end the public comment period, Ellison said.

But while the hearing is meant to review only the report, it could become a forum for other complaints about the project.

While supporters have said Weldon is the only option left for the county as the Bailard Landfill nears a Dec. 7 closure deadline, critics charge that the Weldon proposal could give Waste Management an unduly high profit margin and a near-monopoly on county landfills. The company also runs the Simi Valley Landfill.

Mike Williams, a Waste Management vice president, said the critics are misinformed. Williams said his company must charge the rates it proposes to cover $50 million in start-up costs for Weldon, the investment risk of opening a landfill without guaranteed trash flow, plus liability and post-closure maintenance for 30 years after shutdown.

Kay Martin, director of the county Solid Waste Management Department, backed Williams’ assertions, saying that Waste Management’s operating profit margin matches those at similar landfills throughout California.

In any case, said Supervisor Maggie Kildee, the report that was begun two years ago should move forward to a vote soon.

“I think we’ve reached the point where we’ve got the information we need, and we need to draw the EIR process to a conclusion so we can go on to say . . . ‘Yes we should go to Weldon’ or ‘No, we shouldn’t,’ ” she said. “As long as we keep sending back the EIR and saying, ‘Is it complete?’ we can never say yes or no to Weldon.”