ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Solid-Gold Garbage Deal

The deal between Orange County, cities and trash haulers to lower fees at the county-owned garbage dumps is a welcome bit of good news on several fronts.

One is price. Starting July 1, cities and haulers who recently signed the contracts with the county will see landfill fees drop to $22 per ton, the same rate as before the December 1994 bankruptcy. After the bankruptcy, the county raised the fees to $35 per ton. When haulers started using dumps elsewhere, Orange County cut the fees to $27 per ton, a classic example of market economics at work.

Another advantage of the new contracts is their length, 10 years. That gives all involved an accurate gauge of expenses and revenues, doing away with uncertainty that makes budgets appear to be written on the wind.

Also important is the demonstration that cities and the county, often at odds, can work together to mutual advantage. Considering the many fields in which cooperation is required, including transportation improvements and public safety, clearing the air of some of the cities’ longtime distrust of the county is a necessity.

After the bankruptcy, the county considered selling the landfills in Irvine, Brea and San Juan Capistrano but rejected a $300-million offer as too low. Once sold, the asset would have been gone for good.

Instead, the county has been able to hang onto a money maker and offer a fair deal to the cities and haulers that pay to use the dumps. Now it is up to the cities to pass some of their saving on to their residents.