Trash-Import Bill Meets Opposition : Environment: Lawmaker wants to relax regulations on landfills to help cash-starved county. But San Juan Capistrano residents, Irvine streets would feel impact.

A state lawmaker has introduced legislation that would exempt Orange County from time-consuming state environmental reviews should the supervisors opt to import out-of-county trash to raise cash for bankruptcy recovery.

But the bill authored by Sen. William A. Craven (R-Oceanside) is already drawing fire from environmentalists and officials of cities that would be hit by increased truck traffic near county landfills.

The measure would allow the county to skip the reviews required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), should it go ahead with plans to open the landfills to out-of-county garbage. The county could raise $360 million by hiking fees and importing trash from San Diego, Los Angeles and other counties.

County officials are suggesting that the effort would have a minimal environmental effect and that they’d like to avoid the reviews in no small part to avoid time-consuming lawsuits that often accompany the process.

Finally, they contend that the increase--from the current 10,000 tons a day to an anticipated 16,000 tons daily--would hardly be unprecedented; the landfills were handling 16,000 tons a day as recently as 1989, but that level was reduced by recycling and a downturn in housing construction.

“What we’d be doing is going back to a level at which we once operated,” said Dale Collinson, a county bond counsel working on the bankruptcy recovery plan, who added that following the environmental laws “would be an unfortunate delay.”

“We’re in a real bind,” added Supervisor Marian Bergeson. “Under the unusual circumstances the county finds itself in, you have to consider this to be justifiable.”

Bergeson also noted that trash trucks from northern San Diego County are currently driving through Orange County to reach landfills in Los Angeles County. She said it would hardly affect the environment--and could potentially improve air quality a a bit--if the trucks were permitted instead to use Orange County’s landfills.

“The reality of this situation,” she said, “is that there would not be a sufficient change.”

Environmentalists expressed concern, saying that the pressing financial situation isn’t reason enough to avoid the state-mandated reviews, which include public hearings and other opportunities for comment.

“There’s a reason for the process,” said Elisabeth Brown, president of Laguna Greenbelt Inc. “I know they’re in a hurry-up mode, but the CEQA process doesn’t always mean you do a huge document. It doesn’t have to be a cumbersome process. But it’s a very useful one.”

Brown said that if an environmental review turned up “some serious defect, then county residents have a right to know. If it doesn’t, well, then so much the better. There’s a lot of old saws that apply. You decide in haste and repent in leisure. That’s the way I feel about this.”

In San Juan Capistrano, where city officials and citizens have long been at odds with the county over operation of the Prima Deshecha Landfill, the proposal and the legislation has residents up in arms.

“I’m very disappointed my friend Bill Craven would carry a bill to expedite what in our opinion is a very impactive plan to recover misappropriated funds,” said Councilman Gil Jones. “I know they have to recover those funds, but this is insensitive to a community that will be heavily affected and one that’s worked hard to enhance its historical character.”

Jones said truck traffic headed up Ortega Highway to the dump will roll right past several neighborhoods. In addition, he bemoaned that the hard-won extension of the landfill’s useful life, which has been increased by recycling efforts, would almost certainly evaporate.

The situation is a bit rosier in Irvine, site of the Frank R. Bowerman Landfill. Roads to the landfill there do not meander past any existing neighborhoods; instead, the most immediate problem would be the wear and tear that additional truck traffic would mean for city streets.

Although the city has yet to take a formal stance on the county’s proposal to import trash, City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr. suggested that the least Irvine would want is to defray the extra street maintenance costs.

Under the county plan, the county would receive the $360 million as a lump sum by using revenue from the increased garbage dumping and a simultaneous hike in landfill fees to sell revenue anticipation bonds.

The bill’s prospects in the Legislature remain unclear. Although some state lawmakers are concerned that Orange County’s bankruptcy may affect municipalities throughout California, a large number might not be persuaded that the danger is so grave that the county should avoid environmental laws.

Craven, the bill’s author, also seems ambivalent.

Scott Johnson, Craven’s chief of staff, said the senator took on the bill simply as a favor to the county. Johnson said that Craven got assurances from county officials that the plan would be made “workable for the residents and everyone involved.”

“The county basically plead for assistance,” Johnson said. “There weren’t a lot of other options available to them. I can’t say that we’ve ever had a great discussion (of the proposal). . . . We’re trying to be helpful to the county and nothing more.”