Trash Haulers Fight Importation Plan : Waste: They warn that renting landfill space to other counties would result in residential rate increases and pose environmental problems.

A coalition of major trash haulers in Orange County warned local governments Friday that the importation of garbage from out-of-county sources would prompt rate increases for residents and pose serious environmental concerns.

In a statement submitted to the Orange County Waste Management Commission, nine local waste companies said that a proposal to rent landfill space to Los Angeles and San Diego counties would bring increased traffic at the four county dumps.

As a result, haulers said, they would experience long dumping delays and have to pass their increased operating costs on to consumers in the form of higher prices.

“This is such a big change and is coming so fast that nobody knows much about it,” said consultant Philip L. Anthony, who is representing the nine haulers in hearings before the commission. “Until we get better numbers and know where the waste is going to go, everybody is just questioning it.”

Taken together, Anthony said, his clients haul well over half the garbage collected in the county, now estimated at about 11,000 tons per day. Rates for residential garbage pickup throughout the county range from $10 to $15 per month.

Anthony declined to speculate on how much rates could increase if the import plan is approved. He promised, however, to provide at the commission’s next hearing Tuesday estimates of his clients’ increased operating costs that would result from new regulations.

In their first public review of the proposal Thursday, commissioners remained deadlocked on the plan, even after county officials said that revenue of up to $520 million could be virtually assured under the proposed policy.

The impasse has forced a second hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, when commissioners will be asked to support the importation of up to 10,000 tons of garbage per day from out-of-county sources for as long as five years.

Applying the current fee schedule, the county could earn about $363 million during the length of the policy and keep landfill entry fees frozen at $22.75 per ton for the five-year period.

The same proposal also calls for importers to be charged an added fee of about $10 per ton, which would raise the total revenue to $520 million. The earnings from that surcharge could be applied against any county budget shortfall, which this year totals a massive $93 million.

One major North County hauler and coalition member said Friday that he sympathizes with the county’s budget problems but feels the proposal is being pushed through without attention to customer and environmental impacts.

William Taormina, chairman of Taormina Industries and a Waste Management Commission member, said that the import plan and its operational demands would heavily tax the county landfill system, which is already targeted for staff reductions.

According to the haulers’ estimates, a minimum level of trash imports--5,000 tons per day--would bring at least 250 more trucks to landfills daily. At the same time, a recent audit of landfill staffing called for a reduction of at least six gate attendant positions.

“If they make the (local) hauler stand on line, that costs labor hours,” Taormina said. “Those costs cause rates to go up. We don’t want to be penalized for something that we can’t control.”

In their written statement to the commission, haulers also expressed a range of environmental concerns, from the possible importation of hazardous waste to a future shortage of landfill space caused by the increase of garbage.

“The specific impacts of importation on freeway and surface-street traffic congestion, on further delays at our landfills and on our long-term landfill capacity all must be carefully evaluated before importation is authorized,” the haulers said.

Murry Cable, director of the county’s Integrated Waste Management Department, has told commissioners that even at maximum import levels--10,000 tons per day--Orange County would lose only two years from its landfill system lifetime, now estimated at 44 years.

And, in a presentation to commissioners Thursday, Cable said that the projected revenue would more than pay for any extra operating costs.

“Operating costs are really insignificant,” Cable told the commission. “It will be like dropping pennies from your pockets.”

The waste commission acts in an advisory capacity to the Board of Supervisors, which holds ultimate jurisdiction in the matter. Cable said that the earliest date the issue could go before the supervisors for a hearing is April 27.