Simi residents and local community leaders took the podium this week at city hall to express concerns about the proposed expansion of the Simi Valley Landfill and Recycling Center.
During a public scoping meeting held by the Ventura County Planning Division on Monday night, about 10 people publicly questioned the potential environmental impacts of Waste Management's expansion project.
Speakers included Mayor Paul Miller and state Senate candidate Hannah-Beth Jackson.
"I'm surprised this place isn't packed, but hopefully, as time goes on, people will understand the significance of being here," Miller said. "Although the landfill is not located within the city's incorporated limits, its close proximity to our boundaries has potentially major negative impacts on our community, given the size of the proposed expansion."
Information gathered at the scoping meeting will be used by the county and a thirdparty consultant to complete a comprehensive environmental impact report (EIR)- a document that will analyze the project's impacts on traffic, air quality, natural resources and aesthetics.
WM's application, as it was submitted more than a year ago, calls for tripling the current size of the facility to 887 acres and doubling the landfill disposal area to 371 acres.
The landfill's disposable trash intake would be doubled to 6,250 tons per day, while the daily recyclables intake is decreased to 3,000 tons per day.
Jackson, who said she was against the expansion, spoke about the possibility of Waste Management accepting trash from outside of Ventura County.
"Simi Valley could be a destination point for garbage from Los Angeles and other cities that have wisely limited their landfill growth," Jackson said. "Simi Valley should not bear the burden for (waste) that L.A. has refused to take care of itself."
The waste hauler also propposed to relocate G.I. industries from its current facility on W. Los Angeles Avenue and improve existing facilities by adding a household hazardous waste collection center and a facility to transform methane gas into liquefied natural gas (LNG) to fuel their waste trucks.
Tom Mueller, a 40year resident of Simi Valley, said that the volatile nature of LNG should be a cause for concern.
"It's explosive," Mueller said. "How are we going to safeguard that?"
Another resident, Linda Nelson, said she and her husband stood at an intersection near the landfill and counted the trash trucks passing by at a rate of one truck every 90 seconds.
"What's wrong that we allowed this to happen?" Nelson asked. "Please don't let this landfill be built here."
Louis Pandolfi, who spoke on behalf of the Simi Valley Landfill Expansion Task Force- a citizens committee led in an unofficial capacity by Councilmember Barbra Williamson, said they support the "no project" option.
Pandolfi said the task force's research concluded that added capacity to the landfill is unnecessary because current operations will be sufficient to serve Ventura County until the year 2024.
"Waste Management will have us believe that the dump needs to be expanded to meet the needs of our community, but the facts speak otherwise," Pandolfi said. "This application has only two purposes: to bury garbage generated in Los Angeles and beyond, and to line the pockets of (WM's) Texas blue jeans."
Kit Cole, WM spokesperson, told the Simi Valley Acorn they are committed to keeping the application process "open and transparent."
"I think (the scoping meeting) was great," Cole said. "I think it was a really good opportunity to get feedback from the community.
"I think all the comments made were substantive and helpful and covered all aspects of the project. They were meaningful and will be useful throughout the process."
According to Dan Klemann, a senior planner with Ventura County, a draft EIR will be available to the public for review before it is finalized and used in public hearings.
If all goes as planned, the county's third-party consultant, San Diegobased Science Applications International Corporation, will release the draft document within the next six months.
For more information on WM's proposal, please visit keepingventuracountyclean.org. A copy of Ventura County's initial study on the project can be found at http://www.ventura.org/rma/planning/studies_eirs/index.htm.
