Supporters of Landfill Ready to Try Again

Despite losing a legal battle over a similar initiative last year, supporters of a proposed landfill at Weldon Canyon near Ojai said Thursday that they are preparing to launch a new campaign to place the issue on the ballot in 1996.

Ventura Citizens for Environmental Solutions, the same group that led the failed campaign, is preparing a petition that it plans to deliver to the county elections office next week, said organizer Eloise Brown.

The proposed initiative would allow county voters to decide whether a landfill should be built at Weldon Canyon, which has been staunchly opposed by Ojai and Ventura residents. The canyon is between the two cities.

“Our attorney is dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s,” Brown said. “We hope to have it ready by Tuesday.”

She said her group hopes to gather the more than 18,000 signatures needed to place the measure on the ballot either in March or November of next year. “I expect that we will be able to do it in March,” she said.

Brown said the proposed Weldon Canyon landfill, which has been proclaimed dead by county leaders, remains the best long-term solution for disposing of the west county’s trash. Bailard Landfill in Oxnard is slated to close next year, and the county has yet to devise a strategy for disposing of the area’s waste.

“I think the issue of Weldon Canyon is more valid than ever at this point in time,” Brown said. “I have confidence that common sense will prevail.”

Taconic Resources, the San Diego investment group seeking to build the Weldon Canyon dump, spent more than $335,000 in the failed four-month campaign to place the landfill issue on last November’s ballot. A petition drive garnered more than 32,000 signatures to qualify the ballot measure.

But a judge declared the initiative invalid before voters had an opportunity to decide the matter, saying the measure was an “egregious attempt” to grab power from public officials for private gain.

Brown could not say exactly how the new petitions will differ from those rejected by the court.

Representatives for Taconic could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Supervisor Maggie Kildee, who opposes the Weldon Canyon dump, said there is no need for a new county landfill.

“They’re beating a dead horse,” she said. “If they build Weldon Canyon it’s going to become a repository for out-of-county trash. I think somebody thinks they’re going to make a lot of money importing trash.”

She said the Western Ventura County Waste Management Authority, which represents several cities in the region, has solicited proposals from area trash haulers and landfill operators outside the county for dealing with the waste issue. The authority expects to receive answers in September.

Kildee also stressed that trash has become increasingly valuable in recent years as recycling technology is able to convert more items into commercial products. That increases the county’s leverage in dealing with recycling centers and landfills, she said.

Katherine Stone, an attorney who represented the cities of Ojai and Ventura in the lawsuit opposing last year’s ballot measure, said she believes that a new ballot measure also would be struck down.

Although voters are allowed to make zoning changes, Stone said, the law does not permit them to actually choose a site for a specific development, such as a landfill. Stone said Ojai and Ventura will wait to see what happens with the landfill petition before deciding what action to take.

Brown, a Moorpark resident, said east county residents do not want the Simi Valley Landfill to become the dumping ground for west county trash.

Meanwhile, the Ventura Regional Sanitation District has launched a $1-million environmental study of a proposed expansion of Toland Road Landfill near Santa Paula. The district operates both Toland and Bailard.