Less Trash, Less Cash for O.C.?

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 landfill owners while leaving refuse collectors scrambling to find a place to dump their garbage.

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

Matt Terrell, manager of the privately owned 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,” Terrell 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 end of importation in Orange County could lead to increased operating costs as haulers are forced to drive farther and farther to find available dumps.

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

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

If the initiative is approved, Beckett warned that 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 county’s November 2002 ballot.

The measure would have a ripple effect across Southern California. About 3,600 tons of trash from Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties is hauled into Orange County every day and dumped at the county’s three landfills. There are no private landfills in Orange 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 Los Angeles County, much of it hauled by the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, which owns the Puente Hills Landfill, one of the largest facilities of its kind in the United States.

Landfill manager John Gullege said the district alone trucks 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 of trash would have to be rerouted and taken to the Puente Hills Landfill, displacing trash now dumped at the site by private haulers in the San Gabriel Valley. As those displaced haulers look for places to truck their waste, operating costs will probably increase.

Puente Hills is allowed to take up to 13,200 tons of garbage each day--a maximum of 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 districts’ trash will always be a priority for us. If that measure passes, that means that 1,000 tons of refuse will be displaced each day,” Gullege said.

According to Gullege, Puente Hills takes in one third of the 36,000 tons of trash picked up every day in Los Angeles County.

Chris Perez, whose family owns City of Industry Disposal, said the proposed Orange County measure will mean increased operating 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 the City of Industry, where rubbish is trucked and then 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 measure passes in Orange County 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. He said his trucks will probably have to drive to the privately owned Sunshine Canyon Landfill in Granada Hills, 40 miles away, or the El Sobrante Landfill, a privately owned dump in Riverside County some 60 miles away.

“Either way, I’m looking at increased fuel costs. 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,” he said.

Some in Trash Business Ready to Handle More

Others see benefit in the move to get Orange County out of the importation business.

As Terrell said, Chiquita Canyon Landfill owners are hoping to benefit if Orange County ends the importation of trash. 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, manager of Sunshine Canyon.

Sunshine Canyon, which local residents have tried to shut down in the past, has a county permit to handle up to 6,600 tons of trash daily. But the facility’s operators are seeking permission to almost double that daily limit, Edwards said.

He said unabashedly that Sunshine would try to get as much of the displaced trash as possible if it is 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 also 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 Orange 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 will never appear 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.