Ban Would Mean Less Trash, Less Cash for Orange County

An effort to stop out-of-county trash from being trucked into Orange County could shake up Southern California’s network of landfills and waste haulers, bringing increased business to private landfill owners while leaving refuse collectors scrambling to find a place to dump their garbage.

If successful, the proposed ballot initiative to stop the flow of imported trash could also cost Orange County millions of dollars and force government leaders to find new ways to pay off the county’s lingering bankruptcy debt.

Matt Terrell, manager of the private Chiquita Canyon Landfill near Valencia, is one of those hoping for a windfall.

“The word is out that Orange County might do away with importation,” he said. “We’re doing some preliminary planning to see how we can get some of that business.”

But for some refuse firms in Los Angeles County, the proposal could lead to increased operating costs as haulers are forced to drive farther to find available dumps.

After Orange County declared bankruptcy in December 1994, supervisors decided to raise needed money by letting other Southern California cities dump their trash at local landfills. As an incentive, haulers are charged a cut-rate fee.

In the six years since the county began importing trash, it has collected almost $100 million in fees. Those fees have more than covered the $13-million annual payments that the county pledged to make from trash importation fees under its bankruptcy recovery plan, said Tom Beckett, county manager of public finance.

If the initiative is approved, Beckett warned, supervisors would have to find a way to come up with the $13 million the county must pay each year until 2026.

“If this money is out of the picture, we’ll have to make it up some other way,” probably through budget cuts, Beckett said.

The initiative, filed by an anonymous group of backers, is supported by the mayor of San Juan Capistrano, who said he is tired of the noise and pollution from trash trucks rumbling through town toward the nearby landfill. Eileen Padberg, a political consultant hired to promote the initiative, said the measure will probably be on the November 2002 ballot.

3,600 Tons of Trash Come to County Daily

The measure would have a rippling effect across Southern California. About 3,600 tons of trash from Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties is dumped daily at Orange County’s three landfills. There are no private landfills in the county.

While local haulers are charged $22 per ton in so-called tipping fees, the cost for out-of-county trash is only $19.33 a ton. The importation contracts are in place through 2015, but if the measure passes, importation could end Jan. 1, 2003, because of an escape clause in the agreements.

Most of the imported trash comes from the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, which owns the Puente Hills Landfill, the largest facility of its kind in the United States.

Landfill manager John Gullege said the districts alone truck about 1,000 tons of Los Angeles County trash a day to the Olinda Alpha Landfill in Brea and Frank R. Bowerman Landfill in Irvine.

If Orange County voters approve the measure, Gullege said, those 1,000 tons will go to Puente Hills, displacing trash now dumped there by private haulers in the San Gabriel Valley. As those displaced haulers look elsewhere, their operating costs will probably increase.

Puente Hills is allowed to take up to 13,200 tons a day, 72,000 tons per week. Some days the facility meets its daily limit as early as 10 a.m. By comparison, Orange County’s three landfills take 20,500 tons of trash per day.

“We own Puente Hills, so the district’s trash will always be a priority for us,” Gullege said.

Puente Hills takes one-third of the 36,000 tons of trash picked up every day in Los Angeles County, he said.

Chris Perez, whose family owns City of Industry Disposal, said the Orange County measure would mean higher costs for his company, which has been trucking trash in the San Gabriel Valley since 1957.

“It’s going to present problems to every hauler. Puente Hills has closed as early as 10 a.m. this summer. If you dump the trash that’s currently going to Orange County there, it’ll probably close earlier,” Perez said.

The family built a transfer station in Industry, where rubbish is trucked before being transferred to Puente Hills. Perez said his company relies heavily on Puente Hills and has occasionally used the Bradley West Landfill in Sun Valley, scheduled to close next year.

If the Orange County measure passes and if Bradley closes, waste industry officials in Los Angeles County will be under increased pressure to find landfills to accept the area’s trash.

Perez said haulers will have to increase their dependence on distant landfills. His trucks will probably have to drive to the private Sunshine Canyon Landfill in Granada Hills, 40 miles away, or the El Sobrante Landfill, a private dump in Riverside County 60 miles away.

“Either way, I’m looking at increased fuel costs,” he said. “But the real factor is traffic. I’m going to have drivers spending more hours sitting in traffic, driving to and from the landfill. Nobody knows how much this is going to cost us.”

Some Hope to Benefit if Measure Passes

Others see benefit in the move to get Orange County out of the importation business. As Terrell said, Chiquita Canyon owners are hoping to benefit. So is Dave Edwards.

“All of us are trying to position ourselves if Orange County passes the initiative. We know that a hiccup in the system is going to cause all sorts of havoc,” said Edwards, Sunshine Canyon manager.

That dump, which local residents have tried to shut down, has a county permit to handle up to 6,600 tons daily. But operators are seeking permission to almost double that limit, Edwards said.

He said unabashedly that Sunshine would try to get as much of the displaced trash as possible if allowed to expand.

“We already have a capacity issue in Los Angeles County, fueled by population growth. Sunshine is in the best position to handle increased tonnage,” he said.

In addition to the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, Burrtec Waste Industries and Republic Services haul imported trash to Orange County.

Burrtec General Manager Chuck Tobin said customers whose trash is hauled to Orange County will not see a change in fees, because of contracts signed by haulers and municipalities at the time of the county bankruptcy. Burrtec hauls trash from San Diego, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties to Orange County.

“It’s a question of readjustment for the [landfill] system. But it will all work out in the end,” Tobin said.

Still, Gullege hopes the proposed initiative never appears on the ballot.

“It’s not something we want to see happen. We went out of our way to execute a contract with Orange County to relieve pressure on Puente Hills. It was a good agreement for both of us,” he said.