New Petition Calls for Weldon Canyon Dump : Trash: Backers are confident the initiative will qualify for the March countywide ballot. Opponents vow to renew the legal battle.

Confident of success the second time around, a San Diego investment firm submitted a new petition Thursday that would put construction of a garbage dump north of Ventura before county voters next spring.

Taconic Resources turned in 35,222 signatures, about 13,000 more than needed to place the Weldon Canyon landfill initiative on the March 26 countywide ballot. The firm wants to go around the Board of Supervisors and get voter approval to build a large dump in a rugged canyon between Ventura and Ojai.

A majority of the supervisors voiced opposition to the landfill in 1993, prompting Taconic to circulate a petition that was later struck down in court.

“This is a solution that has been carefully researched for years,” said Moorpark resident Eloise Brown, who helped organize the new petition drive. “Sooner or later, reason has to prevail. The trash isn’t going to go away.”

Brown wants the dump built to replace Bailard Landfill in Oxnard, which is set to close next year. She fears that west county trash would then be shipped to an east county landfill in Simi Valley, causing increased traffic and forcing that dump to close early.

Opponents of the Weldon Canyon dump, who blocked a similar initiative last year, vowed to rejoin the fight.

“We’ll challenge it either by legal means or by our own public campaign,” said John Nava, a member of the Ojai-based Coalition to Stop Weldon Canyon Dump. “We’ll probably attack it legally.”

Nava said attorneys for the coalition are reviewing the wording of the petition, and the group will make a decision soon about filing a lawsuit.

Taconic spent more than $335,000 in a failed four-month campaign to place the landfill issue on last November’s ballot, gathering 32,000 signatures.

But a Superior Court judge declared the measure invalid, saying it was an “egregious attempt” by Taconic to grab power away from public officials for private gain.

Bob Glaser, a consultant who coordinated the Taconic petition drives, said that language in the new initiative has been tightened to withstand legal challenge. Taconic’s name is not mentioned this time, a significant legal correction, he said.

“We assume that they will test it in court again,” Glaser said. “But everybody’s confident it will stand up.”

Richard Chase, general partner of Taconic, said the new initiative will stand up not only because of changes in wording but because the state Supreme Court ruled recently that land-use decisions can be made by voters, as well as elected officials.

Taconic launched the new petition drive two months ago with 80 signature gatherers, half volunteers and half employees paid 60 cents for each signature, Glaser said. Although few signatures were gathered in Ojai, he said, several thousand were collected in Ventura, which is also within a few miles of the proposed dump.

“We had a very good turnout in Ventura,” he said. “One of our signature gatherers collected 3,500 signatures there.”

A large majority of signatures are from east county residents, he said.

Over the next 30 days, the county Registrar of Voters will confirm that signers are registered voters here, Deputy Registrar Jenny Harrison said. Once the petitions are checked, the Board of Supervisors is legally bound to place the issue on the ballot, she said.

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

“It doesn’t matter if this is a good site,” she said. “Ventura County doesn’t need another landfill. It will simply become a repository for refuse from outside the county.”

She said the Western Waste Management Authority, which represents four cities in the west county, has solicited proposals from trash haulers and landfill operators on how to deal with trash after Bailard closes. The authority will hear presentations next month.

Kildee also noted that the new Weldon Canyon initiative does not keep Taconic from taking trash from outside the county. For the proposed 551-acre dump to be successful, it would have to import trash from Los Angeles County and elsewhere.

“There is no other way financially it can make it,” she said.

But Chase said the dump would make money without taking out-of-county trash, and Taconic will agree to such an exclusion in writing.

Meanwhile, Nina Shelley, an Ojai city councilwoman, said her city also remains opposed to the dump, but may not participate in another lawsuit because of the costs.

“It’s not good news for us, because it’s such a financial drain,” she said.

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NEXT STEP

The Ventura County registrar of voters will check the signatures on the Weldon Canyon petition to confirm that they are registered county voters. Once the signatures are validated, the Board of Supervisors will place the landfill initiative on the March 26 ballot.