Dump Taconic

Last year, when supervisors indicated that they would vote against the proposed Weldon dump, Waste Management Inc., quickly withdrew its application for the project.

Now Taconic Resources, a company whose murky relationship to Waste Management is suspicious to say the least, has suddenly emerged with an initiative designed to bypass county decision-makers and site a dump at Weldon Canyon after all. This new effort to get around county government is being fronted by the green-sounding Ventura Citizens for Environmental Solutions. We imagine the Out-of-County Corp. for Dangerous but Lucrative Dumps somehow seemed a less appealing name to Taconic/Waste Management.

But that name really describes what’s going on here. These folks aren’t using their vast resources to help Ventura with a waste problem. Instead, they’re looking to cash in big time. The proposed “solution” to waste disposal just so happens to allow construction of a huge cash cow that could operate around the clock for the next three generations. The fact that Ventura County’s waste stream must be reduced as mandated by AB 939 won’t make a dent in the dump operator’s bottom-line profits. They can simply import trash and then become the Ventura Citizens for Solutions to L.A.’s Garbage Problems.

While all of this has brought back the debate over dumps, our position on these matters remains the same: Dumps represent a dangerous, backward answer and must be rejected. A year ago the coalition called for the closing of the Bailard dump for all the reasons that we believe Weldon should never open. Dumps degrade the environment. Dumps bring serious and unnecessary health dangers. Dumps are economically low yield. They do not treat refuse as an exploitable commodity and hence waste profit and job potentials for the host communities while simultaneously consuming valuable air credits needed for future development.

We must realize that in waste disposal we stand at a moment of historic change. The growing array of new methods and technologies that are coming on line give us the ability to avoid the environmental and health negatives of dumping and, at the same time, allow a fuller economic exploitation of the waste stream through recycling. The proposed initiative fails to recognize this new direction and would commit our county to a tragic, stone-age solution for at least three generations to come.

JOHN NAVA

Coalition to Stop Weldon Canyon Dump

Ojai