City Makes Last Push to Stop Waste Center

A city councilman is mounting an eleventh-hour attempt to halt the opening of a hazardous waste storage facility next to the city’s largest water treatment plant.

Councilman Jim Friedman said he intends to hold a public discussion at Monday’s City Council meeting to gauge the public’s opinion on the Ventura Avenue facility, a drop-off site for used paint, motor oil, batteries and antifreeze that is set to open Wednesday. Friedman contends the site could pose a threat to the city’s water supply, a view supported by other city leaders.

Friedman said the city has been battling the facility for two years, so far to no avail.

“I’m frustrated, and I don’t know if I want to keep battling this if the public isn’t worried about it,” he said.

The county, which will operate the center, contends the threat to the water supply is minimal and argues that the Ventura Avenue site is the best place for the storage facility. County officials point to a July study they say shows the materials will not risk public health if stored temporarily at the county fire station building on Ventura Avenue just north of the city limit.

But, some city officials say they don’t trust the report and feel the county is racing to open the center when it should be considering other sites.

“We obviously disagree with the study,” City Atty. Bob Boehm said. “If the county was going to locate within our city limits, the first thing they would do would be to take it to the city to see if there are any objections. They have chosen not to do that.”

County officials are applying for a permit that would allow the facility to take additional toxic materials, including oil-based paint, contaminated gasoline and solvents. Boehm said that might offer an opportunity for a lawsuit, but declined to elaborate.

Norma Camacho, solid waste division manager for the county, said leakage from toxic materials stored there should not occur because storm drains are capped and plugged. The worst that could happen, Camacho said, is that a drum of paint could spill and then be cleaned up on-site.

The site will serve the Ojai Valley and will be the seventh such facility in the county. It is next door to the Avenue Water Treatment plant, the largest of three plants in Ventura that supply drinking water to 100,000 people, including residents in the unincorporated areas north of the city.

The waste site will only be open once a month and residents will be required to make appointments and receive approval to drop off their hazardous materials, Camacho said. She said she expects to have 40 residents drop off waste each month.

Materials will not be housed longer than three months before being transferred to a permanent facility outside the county, she said.

Camacho said state studies show that people will not drive more than 10 miles from their homes to dispose of household hazardous materials.