Worm Farm Near Simi Valley Snagged by County Red Tape : Waste: Once faced with closure, the composting operation now seeks an exemption from landfill regulations.

Despite new state regulations designed to ease the burden on worm-composting operations, the Worm Concern outside of Simi Valley is not yet off the hook.

The 16-acre worm farm on Tierra Rejada Road, which the county once threatened to close because it did not have the proper permits, now must persuade county officials to exempt it from the extensive regulations that govern solid waste facilities such as landfills.

“Frankly, nobody quite knows what to do,” said Jonathan Chodos, the Worm Concern’s lawyer.

The California Integrated Waste Management Board regulations, which went into effect last month, allow officials to exempt worm farms and small composting operations from the extensive permitting requirements that govern most solid waste facilities.

Terry Gilday, solid waste manager for the Ventura County Environmental Health Division, said his department plans to conduct a public hearing on an exemption for the Worm Concern.

A further complication is that the worm farm also must gain approvals from the county Planning Department. The Worm Concern’s operations now violate its open-space zoning, Todd Collart of the county’s zoning administration section said.

“I feel optimistic that it’s going to work out in our favor,” Richard Morhar, founder of the Worm Concern, said. “It’s a real shame that we had to spend so much time and effort and money pushing the government instead of marketing our product.”

Morhar’s product is produced by countless red earthworms that devour manure, grass clippings and other yard waste and transform them into nitrogen-rich “castings,” which makes a potent food for plants and lawns.

The worm farm is helping the cities of Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks meet tough state mandates requiring cities to cut landfill wastes by 25% by 1995, and by 50% by 2000.

Both cities run pilot projects, under which they send a combined 600 tons of yard waste to the Worm Concern every month during the peak summer season.

Throughout Ventura County, Gilday said, “some 23% of the waste stream has been determined to be compostable green waste. By diverting that waste stream you can almost meet those 1995 goals.”

The Worm Concern has always contended it runs an agriculture operation, not a waste facility, and is adequately covered by farm and livestock regulations.

Chodos said of the earthworms: “They may not look like cows, but basically you feed them, you house them, and you clean up after them. And then you sell them.”

The Worm Concern has had other problems.

Earlier this year, Gilday said his office received several complaints a day about odor, dust, spontaneous fires and flooding at the Worm Concern.

He said the worm farm has addressed most problems and that the office has not received any complaints for several weeks.

Jeffery Hunts, a composting expert at the state Integrated Waste Management Board, said the board’s new composting regulations may have fallen short of the goal to exempt worm farms entirely.

“While the intent may have been to let them off the hook, they are squarely on the hook,” Hunts said.

But Chodos said part of the Worm Concern’s problem is that it is the first worm farm in California to deal with the new regulations. In other words, the worms are guinea pigs for the new regulations.

“Everyone has been stumbling around in the regulatory dark trying to figure out how to do it,” Chodos said. “Because we were first in line it takes a little while longer to figure it out.”