Forest, Playing Fields Planned for Landfill

Sanitation district officials served brunch on a manicured section of the Bailard Landfill on Saturday as they unveiled a landscape plan that will return the dump to grassland once it closes this summer.

About 40 guests munched on muffins and strawberries as they heard plans to plant about 8,500 eucalyptus trees and reseed the landfill, which has been the repository for west county trash off and on since 1962.

“We intend to leave a very well-planned landscape foundation that can be used by the community in the future to meet a variety of recreational needs,” said Ed McCombs, general manager of the Ventura Regional Sanitation District. “The design is intended to be aesthetically pleasing to our immediate neighbors and to the community nearby.”

A one-mile trail will meander around the perimeter of the 160-acre dump between Ventura and Oxnard. The landfill will be off-limits to the public for about a decade for environmental and safety reasons, but after that, soccer players may well be kicking balls on fields surrounded by trees that will grow up to 100 feet tall, McCombs said.

“You will have a forest-like kind of appearance next to these meadows,” he said, pointing to hillside stakes illustrating where trees will be planted.

An irrigation system to encourage vegetation growth will be installed atop the 12 inches of impermeable clay and five feet of soil the district spreads over the garbage. The landscape plan is expected to take up to a year to complete. The district has allocated about $25.7 million to pay for the dump’s closure and required environmental monitoring over the next 30 years.

The dump reopened amid much controversy in 1989 with the goal of generating the money needed to properly close it. The company that had operated Bailard since 1962 had voluntarily closed it in 1975 because of numerous permit violations.

Bailard is the last of a trio of landfills near Victoria Avenue that has served the west county since 1961. Today, expensive homes cluster around River Ridge Golf Course, built atop the former Santa Clara Landfill across the highway, while vegetation covers the nearby Coastal Landfill.

Few people are sorry to see the end of Bailard and its perpetual flock of gulls.

“The recreational amenities that will be here, as well as the landscaping, will be something the city of Oxnard will be thankful for,” Mayor Manny Lopez said.

The district is touting Toland Road Landfill midway between Fillmore and Santa Paula as Bailard’s likely successor, although residents of the Santa Clara Valley are mobilizing to fight the proposal in court.