Santa Paula Trash Wars

* Re: The Toland landfill project.

Why would the farming community object now, when the landfill has been there for 25 years? They need to remember that agriculture also causes pollution problems. Dust and pesticides are a constant reminder of modern agriculture. Perhaps we should just pave the orchards to control air pollution.

The money being spent to oppose the Toland expansion could be better spent on other projects, like helping the homeless, improving roads and schools, medical care for the needy, courts, police officers and youth clubs.

LINDA LLOYD

Santa Paula

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* Your May 11 article about the Toland Road Landfill, “Confidence in Landfill Remains,” includes a statement by Ed McCombs, general manager of the Ventura Regional Sanitation District: “He (McCombs) noted that the district plans to take a number of steps to guard against dust, such as watering down landfill surfaces as well as paving and vacuuming roads in and around the dump.”

In the past week your paper has been full of new information that has been developed regarding particulate-related illnesses and deaths in America. One death count number is 64,000 a year. These particulates are in the “lung damaging range,” 5 microns to 0.5 microns. The particulates become part of the air and are not seen by the naked eye.

These recent findings impact two proposed large dust-producing projects, within 1.2 miles of one another, between Santa Paula and Fillmore: the Ventura Regional Sanitation District’s expanded Toland Road Landfill and S.P. Milling’s Sycamore Ranch Rock Mine. These projects have operating lives of 31 years. Both projects rely on water sprays in air to suppress dust. The Environmental Impact Reports for both contain implications that water spray in air is “the state of the art,” and an effective mitigating measure to remove dust from the air.

The facts are quite different. Gravity water spraying is not effective for removing particulates in the “lung damaging range.” In evaluating these projects, the county permitting agencies should please take notice of the facts and recent particulate lung damage findings, despite Mr. McCombs statement.

CLARENCE N. FREEMAN

Fillmore