Council Heaps Criticism on Landfill Plan : Dispute: San Juan Capistrano officials say county’s expansion designs for Prima Deshecha would leave garbage piled 80 feet above a ridgeline. They will vote tonight on resolution objecting to draft environmental report.

City officials are fighting mad about a county proposal to pile trash in the Prima Deshecha Landfill 80 feet above a ridgeline, which would create a 4,500-foot-long plateau in place of the natural silhouette.

“No way,” Councilman Gil Jones said Monday. “I don’t want the ridgeline altered. We worked too hard to have them preserved. It’s just not acceptable.”

Mayor Collene Campbell believes the City Council will agree unanimously “to fight this every step of the way.”

The council is scheduled to vote tonight on a resolution that expresses its objections to the county’s draft environmental report on plans to modernize the landfill. The city contends the county wants to expand the landfill and the report does not cover problems that would result from such growth. County officials, however, say a larger landfill is already authorized and that the report covers how that would be accomplished.

Among other things, council members say the county’s draft environmental report doesn’t adequately deal with the increase in truck traffic on Ortega Highway that would accompany expanded use of the 1,530-acre landfill site.

But their greatest concern is with the portion of proposed expansion that would make part of the landfill operation visible to residents from the north.

The city’s General Plan calls for protecting ridgelines, and officials here proudly point out that some surrounding cities have been lax when it comes to looking out for hilltops.

“I think the county would want to cooperate with the city’s General Plan,” Campbell said. “I fully expect the county to take another look at it, and that’s what we are hoping for.”

Campbell said the city sent a letter Friday to Supervisor Thomas F. Riley--whose district includes the landfill--asking for his help in revising part of the environmental report before the plan goes before the Board of Supervisors in December.

Steve Blanchard, executive assistant to Riley, said he had not yet seen the city’s letter, but added, “We will seriously consider the city’s concerns and try to address them.”

The county landfill, south of Ortega Highway and east of Interstate 5, has been in use since 1976, handling municipal solid wastes from South County cities.

About a third of the landfill’s site--570 acres--is in the city of San Juan Capistrano, while 133 acres are in San Clemente and the remaining acreage on unincorporated county land.

Some 1,500 tons of rubbish daily is being sent to the landfill and, under the county proposal, the amount could rise to 4,000 tons per day, creating more noise and traffic on Ortega Highway, city officials said.

They contend that more roadways should connect to the landfill from the south or north. Now, Ortega Highway is the only major access to the landfill.

“I know what sort of impacts these trucks have,” said Jones, who lives near a dump truck storage yard in the Los Rios District.

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Diane Fish, a spokeswoman with the county’s Integrated Waste Management agency, said the increase in the landfill’s use would not necessitate the county getting additional permits, because the landfill already has been authorized to accept up to 4,000 tons of garbage per day.

Tom Tomlinson, the city’s director of planning, said it is an expansion, with the county’s plan outlining how it will add 53 years of life to the landfill by increasing its capacity 22-million tons.

George Britton, manager of project planning with the county’s Environmental Management Agency, said the county will respond fully to comments on the draft environmental impact report.

Britton said the report also addresses the development of a portion of the site as a regional park and the alignment of La Pata Avenue from San Juan Capistrano to San Clemente.

Still, Jones said he fears that county officials may have more in mind than just handling trash from South County cities.

“The next thing they will want to do is import trash from San Diego and Los Angeles,” Jones said. “They are expanding the volume of it. It flies in the face of these people doing the recycling and trying to reduce the flow.”

Campbell said she visited the landfill site recently and saw a trash hauler from San Diego pull in.

“I don’t think South County should be the receptacle for everybody’s trash, and I don’t think the citizens want them to be either,” she said.