COSTA MESA : District Weighs Hike in Trash Pickup Fees

The Costa Mesa Sanitary District today will begin considering a proposal to raise its trash collection fees.

Jim Ferryman, president of the district’s board, said that fees will have to go up because Orange County is raising the amount it charges agencies to use its three landfills.

In May, the County Board of Supervisors approved a 54% rise in trash dumping fees, pushing the rate from $22.75 a ton to $35 a ton. That increase will become effective on July 1.

Officials argued that fee increases were needed in the wake of the county’s December bankruptcy filing. The landfills now operate at a deficit, officials said, and would drain badly needed cash from county coffers unless they were made self-supporting.

The Costa Mesa Sanitary District has not yet concluded how much of an increase it will impose on its customers. “At this point, we are just preparing to set a new rate,” Ferryman said.

The agency will also study the possibility of expanding recycling services, which would decrease the amount of waste it sends to the dump.

“If we take more of our garbage to the recycler, it may work out to be cheaper,” Ferryman said. “It will be in the interest of the taxpayers to at least study those possibilities.”