Orange County Considers Ending Ban on L.A. Trash : Garbage: Action comes in response to potential loss of $12 million in dumping fees from a firm that has switched landfills.
SANTA ANA — Orange County officials are considering a proposal to end a decades-old ban on Los Angeles trash in local landfills, and may invite a limited number of Los Angeles haulers to bring in 2,500 tons of garbage each day.
The move, outlined in a memo by the head of the finance committee of Orange County’s Integrated Waste Management Commission, comes in response to the potential loss of $12 million in annual dumping fees at the Olinda landfill near Brea.
The county expects to lose that much money because one of the local haulers, Anaheim Disposal, has recently pulled much of its business out of the Olinda landfill and has begun shipping nearly 2,500 tons of garbage a day to a private dump in West Covina.
If it continues to take its trash to West Covina, Anaheim Disposal’s departure would help Orange County extend the life of its landfills. But officials say the abrupt loss of the fees has wreaked havoc on the county’s waste management budget, forcing them to consider the extraordinary solution of soliciting more garbage at the same time they are asking residents to recycle.
“It’s an inconceivable solution, but we’ve been forced into the position of thinking seriously about inconceivable solutions by the actions of one hauler,†Lee Risner, city manager of La Habra and the author of the finance committee memo, said Wednesday. “We just don’t have a lot of choices.â€
Vincent Taormina, chief executive of Anaheim Disposal, said he had no immediate comment on Risner’s memo. But he has previously said Anaheim Disposal is only sending its loads to the BKK landfill in West Covina on an experimental basis to study potential cost savings.
The company has not yet decided whether to keep using the BKK landfill, Taormina added.
Allowing Los Angeles waste haulers to bring their garbage to Orange County would represent a dramatic change of course. For at least 20 years, the county has barred trucks from other jurisdictions from crossing the county line to dump their loads, a move taken to extend the life of local landfills.
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