Property Owners File Suit to Fight Landfill Expansion

A group of ranchers and other west county property owners has sued to prevent solid waste officials from expanding the Toland Road Landfill between Santa Paula and Fillmore.

An attorney representing Ventura County Citizens to Stop the Toland Landfill claims in a lawsuit filed Thursday that an environmental study by the Ventura Regional Sanitation District is misleading and incomplete.

The group is asking a Superior Court judge to issue a temporary restraining order to block further planning for the proposed expansion and to order a new environmental report.

“The project will substantially diminish air quality, water quality . . . and visual and cultural resources,” the suit says.

It also alleges the landfill expansion would increase noise, traffic and air pollution as well as damage nearby crops by attracting more birds, insects and rodents.

In addition to the citizens’ group, 13 individual residents and the Limoneira Co. of Santa Paula are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Sanitation district directors approved the environmental impact report earlier this year. The document will next be considered by the Ventura County Planning Commission later this spring.

The expansion plans call for increasing the landfill’s capacity from 2.5 million tons to 15 million and daily tonnage from 135 to about 1,500 tons.

Sanitation district officials could not be reached for comment late Friday.