Ojai Group Denounces Dump Plan
A standing-room-only crowd packed a high school gymnasium in Ojai on Friday night to hear speakers blast plans to place a landfill at nearby Weldon Canyon.
About 1,500 people, some carrying signs and sporting T-shirts denouncing the proposed dump, filled the Nordhoff High School gym for a 90-minute town meeting organized by a group called the Coalition to Stop Weldon Canyon Dump.
“It is the bottom of the ninth inning, it’s very, very late in the ballgame, but if everybody does something, we can and we will stop this dump,” said Gregory Nava, a member of the coalition.
The Ventura County Planning Commission will consider a revised environmental impact report on the Weldon Canyon proposal May 27. The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the project in June.
Tables were set up at the town meeting where dump opponents could write letters to county supervisors. But some speakers said the campaign to sway supervisors may already be lost, and they urged opponents of the dump to donate money to a fund for legal challenges.
The coalition, formed last month, includes environmentalists and Ojai Valley property owners. They say the dump, proposed for a canyon between Ventura and Ojai, will worsen air quality in the Ojai Valley and drive down property values.
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