SAN DIEGO ---- Does San Diego County need another place to dump its trash? The developer who has spent the last 10 years trying to put a landfill in rural North County says "yes."
An analysis of the space available at the region's five trash facilities suggests there is still room to grow, but the question is, for how long?
The county estimates the region's landfills will reach their approved capacity in less than three years, by 2007. The key word here is "approved." Four of the five landfills have additional space available, but each needs to undergo a lengthy permitting process to make use of that space.
And that's where a host of potential problems emerge. Getting county, state and federal agencies to sign off on such approvals can take five to 15 years, depending on the size of the expansion and the myriad financial, environmental and legal obstacles that can arise.
The developers of Gregory Canyon landfill find themselves in just such a pickle. The dump would be the county's first new landfill in 25 years and is slated for 320 acres on a 1,770-acre North County site near the Pala Indian Reservation, about three miles east of the Highway 76-Interstate 15 interchange.
The Pala Band of Mission Indians and several environmental groups are opposed to the landfill. They say it would cause environmental damage and could contaminate the San Luis Rey River, a source of drinking water for some North County cities.
The tribe is backing Proposition B, a measure slated for the Nov. 2 ballot aimed at overturning the 1994 proposition that approved the site as a landfill.
Landfill developers argue that the dump site is environmentally sound and is necessary to accommodate the county's waste needs.
While the debate on Gregory Canyon is focused primarily on environmental implications of the landfill's location, the issue of how much landfill space is left in the county has put area waste facilities in the spotlight.
The facilities
San Diego presently has five landfills within county limits: Sycamore, Miramar, Otay, Borrego Springs and Ramona. Miramar is operated by the city of San Diego, while the remaining four are owned and operated by Allied Waste Inc., the company that bought county landfill operations in 1997 for $184 million.
The five landfills that serve all of the county's 19 waste jurisdictions are open to the public as well as waste services providers.
The last landfill located in North County was the county-owned and -operated San Marcos landfill, opened in 1979 and closed in 1997. At the time of its closure, the San Marcos landfill contained about 10 million tons of waste.
Prior to the closure of the San Marcos landfill, the most recent North County landfill in operation was a small facility in Bonsall, which closed in 1985.
The county still owns and maintains both properties.
Where our trash goes now
Total waste generation in San Diego County increased from 4.9 million tons in 1995 to 6.9 million tons in 2001. After recycling, composting and minimal exporting, net disposal into county landfills increased from 2.4 million tons in 1995 to 3.6 million tons in 2001.
Donna Turbyfill, a deputy director for the county's Department of Public Works, said that aside from population growth, residential and commercial development was the biggest reason for the increase.
"We've had a lot of construction in the last several years, which brings up the amount of total waste generated," Turbyfill said, noting that much of the construction debris may be recyclable. "But there's a whole bunch of different ways that you can decrease waste going into landfills."
One of those methods is disposing of trash in landfills across county or state lines, and some of the county's 19 waste jurisdictions truck their garbage across county or state lines for disposal.
Available areas include landfills in Arizona and Nevada and in Orange, Los Angeles and Riverside counties, according to Department of Public Works data.
San Diego County exports a relatively small percentage of its waste, only about 4 percent in 2001.
Waste exporting rates have dropped over the past several years, Turbyfill said, due to market changes.
"(Exporting waste) is really market-driven," Turbyfill said. "Where it goes just depends if it's cheaper to send it out or keep it here."
San Diego landfills accept very little waste from outside the county, only about 19,000 tons in 2001.
North County
Nine North County jurisdictions generated about 515,000 tons of solid waste in 1995, and about 783,000 tons in 2002.
Most waste generated by the North County jurisdictions stays local, going into the Otay and Sycamore landfills, though a small percentage is sent across county lines.
The cities of Del Mar, Escondido, San Marcos and Vista send most of their solid waste to the Sycamore landfill, with smaller percentages going to the Otay landfill.
The cities of Carlsbad, Encinitas and Poway send most of their waste to the Otay landfill, with lesser amounts sent to Sycamore, Miramar or out of the county. Poway also sends some waste to the Ramona landfill.
The city of Oceanside sends most of its garbage to an Orange County landfill, with the remaining portion divided among the Otay, Sycamore and Miramar landfills.
Solana Beach sends most waste to Miramar, with smaller amounts dumped at Otay and Sycamore.
Fees for waste disposal vary based on hauling and gas prices, as well as "tipping fees" ---- the charge per ton for dumping garbage in a landfill.
In 2000, tipping fees for San Diego County landfills ranged from $26 a ton at the Miramar landfill to $41 and $42 a ton at the Otay and Sycamore landfills, respectively.
In 1995, tipping fees were $33 a ton at Miramar and $47.50 a ton at both the Sycamore and Otay landfills.
Though the statewide average for tipping fees increased over the same period, the local decrease is due to the 1997 sale of the county's landfill assets, Department of Public Works officials said.
Available space
The overall picture of the county's waste disposal space can change dramatically based on whether existing landfills can expand or not.
Should local landfill expansion plans not be completed in the coming years, the county could face waste capacity problems in as little as three years.
State law requires counties to issue a report every five years identifying sufficient disposal options for the 15 years ahead, but disposal options are not limited to landfills alone, Turbyfill said.
"It's not just the holes in the ground," Turbyfill said. "It's all the means by which we can dispose of solid waste, including export and recycling. There's a lot of ways to get to 15 years."
Analysis of county landfill capacity, however, depends on more than just the physical space in the landfills themselves.
Each landfill is permitted by the county and state to take in a specific amount of waste each day, and cannot exceed that amount, regardless of the space available. Daily tonnage limits range from 50 to 5,000 tons per day for the county's five landfills.
If current daily tonnage limits do not increase, Turbyfill said, county landfills would reach approved capacity in 2007.
"We'd still have plenty of space but would reach permitted capacity by 2007," Turbyfill said.
If capacity limits were upped, however, the county's disposal needs for the future could be met, Turbyfill said.
Expansion
Physical expansions of existing landfills could fill the county's need for additional space, but the often-lengthy permitting process required for expansion makes timing of the essence.
The county's long-term waste management plan identifies expansion of existing landfills as preferable to new landfill construction, generally because the process is faster and requires fewer steps, said Jim Ambroso, district manager for Allied Waste.
Still, acquiring permits needed to expand a landfill takes years.
The first steps in an expansion are obtaining local approval from the county or city, usually the most lengthy process because of state laws that often require a study on the environmental impacts of the proposed expansion before projects can move on to seek multiple state-level approvals.
Any necessary federal approvals, such as U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, can also add as many as four years to the process.
"We have a highly contested landfill called Sunshine Canyon in the Los Angeles area, a project that started in 1988, and we just got expansion approval this month, 16 years later," Ambroso said. "It can really depend on how much people want to fight it."
Gregory Canyon, approved 10 years ago, is still in the permitting process, due in part to opposition efforts.
Room to grow
Local landfills currently considering expansion are the Sycamore and Miramar landfills, which, at their present sizes, have lifespans of 15 and eight years, respectively. Of the two, Sycamore is the likely candidate for use in the near future.
Once expanded, Sycamore will have enough capacity to sustain the county at current trash generation rates for an additional 35 years. The landfill's expansion will likely be permitted within five years, Ambroso said.
The Miramar landfill has taken some extremely preliminary steps toward expansion but hasn't begun any paperwork, said landfill spokeswoman Nicole Hall. Any expansion would add about eight years of capacity.
The smaller Ramona and Borrego Springs landfills have room to grow, but Allied Waste has not yet initiated any plans to do so.
The Otay landfill recently completed an expansion that took about five years, and Ambroso said there are no plans to seek additional growth.
County estimates show that the Gregory Canyon landfill would add 30 million tons, or 30 years, of landfill space.
Recycling eases crunch
As the region debates the need for another trash dump, opponents of a planned North County landfill and environmental groups say recycling is easing the space crunch.
A 1989 state law required all jurisdictions to divert 50 percent of their waste from landfills by 2004, through recycling, composting or similar uses.
In 1995, the county was recycling an estimated 43 percent of its trash, said Donna Turbyfill, a deputy director for the county's Department of Public Works.
Turbyfill said recycling has been on the rise over the past 10 years, with most local jurisdictions near the mandated 50 percent diversion, or recycling, rate.
Right now, the average countywide diversion rate for all jurisdictions is about 48 percent, Turbyfill said, with some areas above the 50 percent requirement and others falling just short.
"It's challenging because of the fact that there is a fluctuating market for recyclables, like any other commodity," Turbyfill said. "The price people are willing to pay for paper, metal or plastics changes. If it was steady and completely market-driven it wouldn't need to be subsidized."
Innovation has helped increase recycling options, including the ability to reuse materials such as concrete and tires.
Caltrans recently began recycling concrete by grinding it up and reusing it on new projects, and the state gives grants for the use of rubberized asphalt, which is made from recycled tires.
"As technology changes, it enables people to do different things," Turbyfill said.
The developers of Gregory Canyon landfill find themselves in just such a pickle. The dump would be the county's first new landfill in 25 years and is slated for 320 acres on a 1,770-acre North County site near the Pala Indian Reservation, about three miles east of the Highway 76-Interstate 15 interchange.
The Pala Band of Mission Indians and several environmental groups are opposed to the landfill. They say it would cause environmental damage and could contaminate the San Luis Rey River, a source of drinking water for some North County cities.
The tribe is backing Proposition B, a measure slated for the Nov. 2 ballot aimed at overturning the 1994 proposition that approved the site as a landfill.
Landfill developers argue that the dump site is environmentally sound and is necessary to accommodate the county's waste needs.
While the debate on Gregory Canyon is focused primarily on environmental implications of the landfill's location, the issue of how much landfill space is left in the county has put area waste facilities in the spotlight.
The facilities
San Diego presently has five landfills within county limits: Sycamore, Miramar, Otay, Borrego Springs and Ramona. Miramar is operated by the city of San Diego, while the remaining four are owned and operated by Allied Waste Inc., the company that bought county landfill operations in 1997 for $184 million.
The five landfills that serve all of the county's 19 waste jurisdictions are open to the public as well as waste services providers.
The last landfill located in North County was the county-owned and -operated San Marcos landfill, opened in 1979 and closed in 1997. At the time of its closure, the San Marcos landfill contained about 10 million tons of waste.
Prior to the closure of the San Marcos landfill, the most recent North County landfill in operation was a small facility in Bonsall, which closed in 1985.
The county still owns and maintains both properties.
Where our trash goes now
Total waste generation in San Diego County increased from 4.9 million tons in 1995 to 6.9 million tons in 2001. After recycling, composting and minimal exporting, net disposal into county landfills increased from 2.4 million tons in 1995 to 3.6 million tons in 2001.
Donna Turbyfill, a deputy director for the county's Department of Public Works, said that aside from population growth, residential and commercial development was the biggest reason for the increase.
"We've had a lot of construction in the last several years, which brings up the amount of total waste generated," Turbyfill said, noting that much of the construction debris may be recyclable. "But there's a whole bunch of different ways that you can decrease waste going into landfills."
One of those methods is disposing of trash in landfills across county or state lines, and some of the county's 19 waste jurisdictions truck their garbage across county or state lines for disposal.
Available areas include landfills in Arizona and Nevada and in Orange, Los Angeles and Riverside counties, according to Department of Public Works data.
San Diego County exports a relatively small percentage of its waste, only about 4 percent in 2001.
Waste exporting rates have dropped over the past several years, Turbyfill said, due to market changes.
"(Exporting waste) is really market-driven," Turbyfill said. "Where it goes just depends if it's cheaper to send it out or keep it here."
San Diego landfills accept very little waste from outside the county, only about 19,000 tons in 2001.
North County
Nine North County jurisdictions generated about 515,000 tons of solid waste in 1995, and about 783,000 tons in 2002.
Most waste generated by the North County jurisdictions stays local, going into the Otay and Sycamore landfills, though a small percentage is sent across county lines.
The cities of Del Mar, Escondido, San Marcos and Vista send most of their solid waste to the Sycamore landfill, with smaller percentages going to the Otay landfill.
The cities of Carlsbad, Encinitas and Poway send most of their waste to the Otay landfill, with lesser amounts sent to Sycamore, Miramar or out of the county. Poway also sends some waste to the Ramona landfill.
The city of Oceanside sends most of its garbage to an Orange County landfill, with the remaining portion divided among the Otay, Sycamore and Miramar landfills.
Solana Beach sends most waste to Miramar, with smaller amounts dumped at Otay and Sycamore.
Fees for waste disposal vary based on hauling and gas prices, as well as "tipping fees" ---- the charge per ton for dumping garbage in a landfill.
In 2000, tipping fees for San Diego County landfills ranged from $26 a ton at the Miramar landfill to $41 and $42 a ton at the Otay and Sycamore landfills, respectively.
In 1995, tipping fees were $33 a ton at Miramar and $47.50 a ton at both the Sycamore and Otay landfills.
Though the statewide average for tipping fees increased over the same period, the local decrease is due to the 1997 sale of the county's landfill assets, Department of Public Works officials said.
Available space
The overall picture of the county's waste disposal space can change dramatically based on whether existing landfills can expand or not.
Should local landfill expansion plans not be completed in the coming years, the county could face waste capacity problems in as little as three years.
State law requires counties to issue a report every five years identifying sufficient disposal options for the 15 years ahead, but disposal options are not limited to landfills alone, Turbyfill said.
"It's not just the holes in the ground," Turbyfill said. "It's all the means by which we can dispose of solid waste, including export and recycling. There's a lot of ways to get to 15 years."
Analysis of county landfill capacity, however, depends on more than just the physical space in the landfills themselves.
Each landfill is permitted by the county and state to take in a specific amount of waste each day, and cannot exceed that amount, regardless of the space available. Daily tonnage limits range from 50 to 5,000 tons per day for the county's five landfills.
If current daily tonnage limits do not increase, Turbyfill said, county landfills would reach approved capacity in 2007.
"We'd still have plenty of space but would reach permitted capacity by 2007," Turbyfill said.
If capacity limits were upped, however, the county's disposal needs for the future could be met, Turbyfill said.
Expansion
Physical expansions of existing landfills could fill the county's need for additional space, but the often-lengthy permitting process required for expansion makes timing of the essence.
The county's long-term waste management plan identifies expansion of existing landfills as preferable to new landfill construction, generally because the process is faster and requires fewer steps, said Jim Ambroso, district manager for Allied Waste.
Still, acquiring permits needed to expand a landfill takes years.
The first steps in an expansion are obtaining local approval from the county or city, usually the most lengthy process because of state laws that often require a study on the environmental impacts of the proposed expansion before projects can move on to seek multiple state-level approvals.
Any necessary federal approvals, such as U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, can also add as many as four years to the process.
"We have a highly contested landfill called Sunshine Canyon in the Los Angeles area, a project that started in 1988, and we just got expansion approval this month, 16 years later," Ambroso said. "It can really depend on how much people want to fight it."
Gregory Canyon, approved 10 years ago, is still in the permitting process, due in part to opposition efforts.
Room to grow
Local landfills currently considering expansion are the Sycamore and Miramar landfills, which, at their present sizes, have lifespans of 15 and eight years, respectively. Of the two, Sycamore is the likely candidate for use in the near future.
Once expanded, Sycamore will have enough capacity to sustain the county at current trash generation rates for an additional 35 years. The landfill's expansion will likely be permitted within five years, Ambroso said.
The Miramar landfill has taken some extremely preliminary steps toward expansion but hasn't begun any paperwork, said landfill spokeswoman Nicole Hall. Any expansion would add about eight years of capacity.
The smaller Ramona and Borrego Springs landfills have room to grow, but Allied Waste has not yet initiated any plans to do so.
The Otay landfill recently completed an expansion that took about five years, and Ambroso said there are no plans to seek additional growth.
County estimates show that the Gregory Canyon landfill would add 30 million tons, or 30 years, of landfill space.
Recycling eases crunch
As the region debates the need for another trash dump, opponents of a planned North County landfill and environmental groups say recycling is easing the space crunch.
A 1989 state law required all jurisdictions to divert 50 percent of their waste from landfills by 2004, through recycling, composting or similar uses.
In 1995, the county was recycling an estimated 43 percent of its trash, said Donna Turbyfill, a deputy director for the county's Department of Public Works.
Turbyfill said recycling has been on the rise over the past 10 years, with most local jurisdictions near the mandated 50 percent diversion, or recycling, rate.
Right now, the average countywide diversion rate for all jurisdictions is about 48 percent, Turbyfill said, with some areas above the 50 percent requirement and others falling just short.
"It's challenging because of the fact that there is a fluctuating market for recyclables, like any other commodity," Turbyfill said. "The price people are willing to pay for paper, metal or plastics changes. If it was steady and completely market-driven it wouldn't need to be subsidized."
Innovation has helped increase recycling options, including the ability to reuse materials such as concrete and tires.
Caltrans recently began recycling concrete by grinding it up and reusing it on new projects, and the state gives grants for the use of rubberized asphalt, which is made from recycled tires.
"As technology changes, it enables people to do different things," Turbyfill said.
Where our trash goes
Miramar Landfill
Location: Marine Corps base near MiraMesa
Total acreage: 1,500
Total daily tonnage: 8,000
Expected closure: 2012
Expansion: Seeking preliminary approval for expansion.
Sycamore Landfill
Location: On border of Santee and city of San Diego
Total acreage: 340
Total daily tonnage: 3,300
Expected closure: 2019
Expansion: Permit pending approval.
Otay Landfill
Location: Chula Vista
Total acreage: 550
Total daily tonnage: 5,000
Expected closure: 2025
Expansion: Recently completed (2000), no additional expansion planned.
Borrego Springs Landfill
Location: Borrego Springs
Total acreage: 42
Total daily tonnage: 50
Expected closure: 2034
Expansion: Room to grow, but no expansion currently planned.
Ramona Landfill
Location: Ramona
Total acreage: 160
Total daily tonnage: 300
Expected closure: 2009-2011
Expansion: Room to grow, but no expansion currently planned.
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