Firm Pulls Weldon Landfill Application : Disposal: Waste Management halts its proposal for now, despite eight years of planning. It cites lack of political support.

Facing imminent defeat before the Board of Supervisors, developers of a new garbage dump for western Ventura County withdrew Friday their application to operate a landfill in rugged Weldon Canyon at the mouth of the Ojai Valley.

Officials at Waste Management of North America announced that they had halted--though not necessarily abandoned permanently--plans to build a landfill in the canyon despite eight years of planning and $13 million in expense.

“It is clear that environmental merits notwithstanding, there is not sufficient political support for the project at this time,” said a Waste Management press release statement.

The company’s withdrawal effectively kills the Weldon Canyon project for now and ends government consideration of it, county officials said. If Waste Management were to resubmit the proposal, a years-long approval process would have to begin anew, they said.

“What they’ve done is preserve their opportunity to refile, because the project has not been denied on environmental grounds,” said Russ Baggerly, top aide to Supervisor Maria VanderKolk. “It was a smart business move. I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t have done it.”

The withdrawal followed by three days county supervisors’ rejection of the company’s request to postpone a final vote on the controversial project. The company requested a six-month delay after Supervisor Maggie Kildee--the board’s swing vote--declared she could not support a new landfill.

Opponents of the project celebrated Friday what several said is an enormous victory over Waste Management, the world’s largest rubbish-disposal firm.

“Frankly, I’m over here having a glass of champagne,” Ojai Councilwoman Nina Shelley said. “Because of this, children are going to have fewer health problems, old people might live a few days longer. It’s very meaningful. And it didn’t just happen. We made it happen.”

But an Ojai Valley-based coalition that in recent months led the fight against Weldon Canyon by citing the dump’s proximity to homes also stressed that Friday’s victory is only a step in a lengthy effort to find environmentally sound ways to dispose of trash.

“If we were into this for the short run, we would declare victory,” said Andrew Stasse, of the Coalition to Stop Weldon Canyon Dump. “But what I think is appropriate is to say we have one piece of the puzzle decided, and now let’s look to the future and develop a unified plan for waste management in the county.”

Michael Williams, president of local Waste Management operations, said his company is determined to play a continuing role in the disposal of Ventura County’s rubbish.

In addition to running the Simi Valley Landfill, Waste Management has already begun to shift its efforts to projects in which the supervisors have expressed interest--recycling and shipping trash that cannot be recycled to landfills in distant locations.

“We have switched gears,” Williams said. “We hope that all of our efforts won’t go to waste, and we can join together with the Weldon opposition folks . . . so we can all get off and running after 20 years of stalemate.”

Supervisor John K. Flynn, a Weldon Canyon supporter until it became clear the project was a political loser, said he counseled Waste Management to withdraw its application because a bruising set of hearings would have reduced its chances for future trash contacts.

“Their chances would have been minimal,” he said. “Now I think their chances have improved.”

Waste Management, dump opponents and county officials all said that the defeat of the Weldon Canyon proposal only re-emphasizes the need for a comprehensive plan for rubbish disposal.

Kildee, who chairs the county Waste Commission and is trying to form an effective countywide Waste Authority, said waste experts will submit to the board in August a detailed evaluation of the county’s disposal options.

The precise costs of hauling waste by rail to Utah must be determined, she said. Officials must also firm up plans for recycling and trash-sorting plants. And city councils should begin to consider mandatory recycling of so-called green waste, such as lawn clippings and tree trimmings, she said.

Under state law, the cities and the county must recycle 25% of their waste by 1995 and 50% by the year 2000.

Kildee said the demise of the Weldon Canyon dump has perked the interest of companies that now see Ventura County is serious about recycling.

“The recycling people are coming out of the woodwork,” Kildee said. “Now rather than one big place where we send all of our trash, we’ll find a variety of answers.”

Stasse said approval of Weldon “would have been a disincentive to move forward. Now we don’t have a choice but to develop innovative waste programs.”

By fall, county supervisors also will consider extending the life of the Bailard Landfill near Oxnard, which is scheduled to close in December. The Weldon Canyon dump was to have replaced Bailard.

Flynn said he thinks the board will allow the landfill to stay open until 1996 or 1997.

Although Waste Management withdrew its application, company officials made it clear that they still consider Weldon Canyon an excellent site for a landfill. A series of studies have identified the canyon as “the best environmental and economical solution for the county’s waste disposal needs,” the company’s press release said.

Williams said that Weldon Canyon “may or may not” be dead as a future landfill site.

“If the county wanted to permit Weldon, whether we’re involved or not, they could go in and permit the site themselves and send it out to bid for someone to run,” Williams said.

If that happens, he said, Waste Management might be interested in running it.

Some county officials, in fact, said that Waste Management withdrew so the company could retain the option of developing the canyon in the future once the faces change on the Board of Supervisors.

Williams said the future make-up of the board was never discussed when deciding to kill the Weldon project.

“We haven’t talked in that vein at all,” he said. “It’s never been our intent to deal with that.”

The only way Weldon Canyon could be effectively killed from future consideration would be for the supervisors to repudiate their 1985 endorsement of the site as the premier location for a new west county dump, county officials said.

Shelley said any future Weldon Canyon developer would have to deal with the same buzz saw of opposition.

“I just don’t see anyone who would (apply for a landfill permit) given what has occurred,” she said. “Who would want to go through this again. But in case anyone does, we’re ready.”