State Panel Recommends Extension for Bailard : Landfills: Committee votes to allow the dump to operate until 1997. Advisers to Integrated Waste Management Board hear hours of complaints.

Bailard Landfill inched closer to remaining open until 1997 on Thursday as a committee of a state waste management board voted unanimously to recommend extending the dump’s permit.

The three-member Permitting and Enforcement Committee of the California Integrated Waste Management Board reached its decision after listening to more than three hours of complaints about Bailard’s permeating stench, an incessant barrage of sea gull droppings, and a variety of health problems related to the 223-acre landfill.

“We cannot invite people to our home because of that stench,” said John Christiansen, who lives in the River Ridge development near the dump. “They (sea gulls) sit on our roof and defecate.”

The full six-member board will meet in Sacramento on Wednesday to decide the dump’s longevity. The board’s staff has already recommended to extend the life of the 34-year-old landfill, which was originally scheduled to close last December.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 1 in March to keep the dump open until 1997 or until it reaches its maximum capacity of 3.15 billion tons. The board favored keeping the dump open, over the objections of speakers including the nuns of Sister Servants of Mary, whose convent sits only 500 feet from the landfill.

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County officials said they have no other place to dump the 1,000 tons of trash produced in western Ventura County daily. They decided to extend the permit after a proposal to open a new dump in Weldon Canyon near Ojai was defeated following an eight-year fight.

Supervisor John K. Flynn of Oxnard, who voted against the extension, helped orchestrate the opposition to the landfill at Thursday’s hearing before the state committee. About 40 residents voiced complaints.

Although Flynn considered the hearing to be a step forward because committee members agreed to make sure the dump closes in 1997, he was disappointed by what he considered a lack of respect for the public’s opinions.

“The people have spoken, and the bureaucracy has failed to listen,” said Flynn, who plans to fly to Sacramento for Wednesday’s meeting.

Those who live near the Bailard landfill argued that three more years is intolerable.

“I went into my back yard the other day, and the entire top of my barbecue was covered with sea gull droppings,” said Daniel Lechliter of north Oxnard. “Obviously that is not a very healthy cooking environment.”

Not all of the speakers were opposed to the extension, however.

Patricia Baggerly, an opponent of the proposed Weldon Canyon landfill, said, “The extension of the Bailard Landfill will provide the cities and Ventura County additional time to implement their recycling and green waste programs.” She also said it would allow the county to finish studying the idea of hauling trash outside of the county for disposal.

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Tila Estrada, an Oxnard real estate sales agent, said she contracted a case of valley fever and attributes it to dust coming from the dump.

“I had a rash all over my body,” she said. “I thought I was going to die.”

Oxnard High School, which is scheduled to relocate near the landfill, had experienced landfill-related odor and sea gull problems at their previous site. Principal Bill Thrasher now expects the problem to get worse.

“I think it will be difficult in our classrooms,” Thrasher said. “Due to the odor, we’ll have to keep our windows closed.”

After weighing public comments, a report from one of their inspectors, and the county’s environmental documents, the committee followed the recommendation of their staff by voting for the extension. Committee members, however, expressed surprise at how little Ventura County had done to look for alternative sites.

“You’re getting down to no capacity and no game plan in that area,” said board member Paul Relis. “My patience is running short.”