Landfill Operators Sue to Force Nuns to Accept Offer

The operators of the Bailard Landfill in Oxnard have filed a lawsuit to force the Catholic nuns who live in a convent nearby to accept $96,500 as compensation for the dust, noise and smell from the dump.

Clint Whitney, general manager for the Ventura Regional Sanitation District, which operates the landfill, said the suit was a legal maneuver to meet a deadline imposed by the Board of Supervisors to resolve an impasse between the nuns and the sanitation district.

The supervisors voted 4 to 1 in March to extend the landfill’s permit for three years as long as the sanitation district made a settlement with the Sister Servants of Mary, which has run the convent for 30 years. Supervisor John Flynn voted against it, saying the landfill had exceeded its capacity and the permit should not be extended.

Whitney argues that the district’s action frees it from the possibility of losing its permit to operate the landfill by showing that it is taking actions to resolve the impasse.

“There’s no longer the threat that we’ll have to close,” he said.

Whitney said that negotiations will continue despite the district’s lawsuit, filed in Ventura County Superior Court. A mediator was retained when talks broke down a month ago, but due to scheduling problems, negotiations will not begin again until mid-July, he said.

Stanley Cohen, the Oxnard-based attorney representing the nuns, said he considers the lawsuit a formality and is eager to re-enter formal negotiations in July.

“I can’t in all honesty fault the district” for the lawsuit, Cohen said. “Both sides have been working diligently to negotiate a settlement and resolve the problem, but they were up against a board deadline.”

Cohen said the nuns probably would not try to shut down the landfill even if negotiations continue to falter.

“The sisters realize that the problems (caused by forcing the landfill to close) would go far beyond their own,” he said. “But if we can’t mediate a resolution to this, we are going to go for broke, take this to court and collect on the damages.”

The convent is situated about 500 feet from the landfill on a large parcel donated to the Catholic order 33 years ago. It is one of just six such convents in the United States that train nuns for service in the Sister Servants of Mary order. Nuns in the order minister to the homebound sick and elderly.

The Bailard landfill, which opened a few years after the nuns launched their convent, now covers more than 180 acres.

Flynn speculated that the district was delaying the negotiations until July because the State Integrated Waste Management Board is scheduled to meet in Ventura in June. He said the district wanted to avoid any controversy that could affect its environmental-health permit, which the state board is scheduled to review.

Both Cohen and the district’s Whitney disagreed with Flynn’s contention.

“He still wants the landfill closed,” Whitney said. “But John Flynn lost that fight 4 to 1 and my advice to him is to let it go. Everybody knows he’s a lone voice in the wilderness. The fact is, both sides are highly motivated to negotiate a settlement.”

But the two sides are still far from a resolution.

The nuns at the convent have said that the dust, noise and smell from the dump are unhealthy and at times unbearable. They are asking that the district buy their property and find them an alternative site to live. Cohen estimates that the move would cost more than $2 million.

District officials said the offer contained in the lawsuit was fair.