Board Dumps Landfill Monitor; Farmers Upset

Farmers who live near the Toland Road Landfill expressed anger Tuesday after Ventura County supervisors voted to dump the on-site independent monitor, whose job includes tracking pesky birds, dust and litter and ensuring that trucks are traveling at appropriately low speeds.

Instead, supervisors decided to let county staff do the job.

“We went down a notch today,” said Gordon Kimball, who owns 100 acres of avocados near the dump, between Fillmore and Santa Paula. “We lost the independent monitor. . . . I’m disappointed.”

In a 3-2 vote, supervisors agreed to require the Ventura County Sanitation District to spend up to $27,547 more a year on inspections at the 29-year-old facility. The district, which owns the dump, spends $50,000 annually for a private firm to inspect the facility, making sure that it complies with permit requirements.

An independent monitor has been used since shortly after May 22, 1996, when supervisors began allowing a tenfold increase in garbage at the dump. Since then, farmers and other residents living near the facility have complained bitterly about clouds of dust, messy flocks of ravens and litter at the site.

Supervisor John Flynn said Tuesday that county planners and staff from the agricultural commissioner’s office were qualified to monitor the site.

“If we go to an independent monitor, what we’re saying to our own staff is that we don’t trust you,” Flynn said before making the motion for the vote.

But Supervisors Kathy Long and Judy Mikels vehemently disagreed. They said the change made it appear that the county was giving the district--whose members include elected officials countywide--special favors.

“We’re not going to boost the confidence of the public without an independent consultant,” Mikels said. “It’s not that we don’t trust our colleagues. What’s important is the confidence of the public.”

Before voting against the motion, Long asked planning staff to determine how much waste is shipped to Toland from Santa Barbara County. She said she was disturbed that county staff did not have complete records on the tonnage of trash shipped from the county to the north.

“I would like to have a much stronger paper trail,” Long said. “I see down the road real threats out of Santa Barbara County as they try to fulfill their landfill [reduction] requirements. We need to have real clear records of where our trash is coming from.”

Farmers and residents also pointed out that dump permits require that roads at the facility be paved to reduce dust. The paving, they added, has not been done.

“They wouldn’t commit to it,” Kimball said, referring to members of the sanitation district. “That means it’s not going to happen.”