Fillmore Group Criticizes Landfill Growth Plan

Claiming it is a waste of taxpayers’ money, members of a group opposed to the expansion of a west Ventura County landfill signed a letter Monday asking that the county sanitation district reverse its decision to go ahead with a costly environmental report.

All six members of the West Ventura County Waste Management Authority signed the letter, which says in part that “enough options currently exist for waste disposal and enhanced use of recycled materials that any new or expanded landfill project in Ventura County would be an expensive and superfluous proposition.”

The district board “needs to take a look at why they’re spending $750,000 [on the environmental impact report] for a proposal that doesn’t have a ghost of a chance,” said Roger Campbell, a Fillmore city councilman and authority member who released the letter.

Leading the effort to expand the Toland Road Landfill, located between Santa Paula and Fillmore, has been Clint Whitney, general manager of the Ventura Regional Sanitation District, which runs Toland and the Bailard Landfill in Oxnard. Bailard is slated to close within 18 months.

Whitney, who could not be reached for comment Monday, has argued that Toland be expanded so the county is not subject to what he says are the higher costs of disposing trash in Los Angeles County.

But the waste authority has countered that there are ample disposal sites available in the Los Angeles area to allow for competitive prices.

The authority’s members represent the proposed landfill’s potential customers: the county, the cities of Fillmore, Ojai, Santa Paula and Ventura, as well as the Channel Islands Beach Community Services District.