Backers of Trash Ban Still Gunshy

A proposed initiative to stop out-of-county trash from being imported into Orange County has been filed, but its backers remain anonymous for now.

The county counsel forwarded a ballot title and summary of the initiative to the registrar of voters Monday, but political consultant Eileen Padberg, hired to promote the initiative, said that so far none of the initiative’s backers “wants to be the first to sign on as a sponsor.”

Barry Fadem, a San Francisco attorney who wrote the measure, said he has been hired by trash haulers who want the trash dumping from outside the county to end. He declined, however, to identify the haulers, their home counties or the reasons for their positions.

The proposed measure would prohibit the disposal of solid wastes from outside Orange County at county landfills in Brea, Irvine and San Juan Capistrano.

Unless the haulers contribute money to collect more than 71,000 signatures by Sept. 17 to qualify the initiative for the March ballot, the measure may have to wait until the November 2002 election, Padberg said.

“There’s a lot of interest from in-county and out-of-county haulers, but nobody wants to be the first to do something,” she said. “Nobody wants to be the first to contribute money.”

Supervisor Todd Spitzer said that backers of the initiative “have a right to put it on the ballot” but charged the measure “is motivated by profit in the hands of somebody operating a landfill outside the county or an out-of-county hauler.”

He said that county officials also want to learn who the backers are.

After Orange County declared bankruptcy in December 1994, supervisors voted to allow out-of-county trash at three county-owned landfills. Since importation began in 1995, about $90 million in dumping fees has been paid by other counties’ trash haulers.

Spitzer said that income is a significant part of the $11 million the county pays each year for the bankruptcy debt. “It’s a no-brainer that this thing will pass if it makes the ballot,” he said. “But the average citizen doesn’t know how badly the county will be impacted if we lose the revenue from imported trash.”

The so-called tipping fee for imported trash is $19.33 per ton. Local haulers pay $22 per ton. Unless the initiative is approved by voters, importation could continue until 2015. If the measure passes, importation could end Jan. 1, 2003.

It is possible, then, that the backers include local haulers who cannot take advantage of the lower price and out-of-county haulers without contracts to dump in Orange County, but Fadem declined to confirm either.

Padberg said that the Board of Supervisors could place the initiative on the ballot without gathering voter signatures, but supporters of the initiative consider that unlikely. Some supervisors and officials oppose the initiative because it would reduce county revenue.

However, supporters of the measure say imported trash is shortening the lives of the county landfills.

San Juan Capistrano Mayor Wyatt T. Hart, who signed as a sponsor of the initiative, said that trash trucks hauling refuse to the landfill east of town are contributing to noise and air pollution in the city and degrading the quality of life.

Spitzer said that Hart and local supporters of the measure have been misled.

“Some people in the refuse business are using the argument of landfill life span and the environment to say they’re looking out for taxpayers. Their motivation is to line their own pockets,” he said.

Fadem remained tight-lipped about the haulers he represents but acknowledged that money and support from the industry must start flowing soon if the initiative is to go before the voters in March.

“The proponents are still involved in making calls and contacting people to launch it. It’s a given that we can’t go without money,” Fadem said. “The first step has been taken.”

Fund-raisers hired by the anonymous haulers have been calling officials at privately owned landfills outside Orange County to solicit contributions.

Richard Chase, project manager for the proposed Gregory Canyon Landfill in northern San Diego County, said he was called for a contribution.

Chase said that he and the other investors in the landfill declined to contribute.

If importation ends in Orange County, private landfills in San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties would see an increase in revenue.

Waste is imported six days a week from those four counties by four haulers. According to Orange County Integrated Waste Management Department figures, each day in 2000 an average of 11,741 tons of Orange County trash was dumped at local landfills daily and 3,672 tons were trucked from outside the county.

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Imported trash

Supporters of a proposed ballot initiative are hoping to end the county’s involvement in importing out-of-county trash. The imported trash began arriving at county landfills in 1995 when the county was looking for new revenue to offset losses from its historic bankruptcy.