Supervisors Won’t Reinstate Ban on Imported Trash at Simi Dump : Waste: The board says it can’t legally prohibit out-of-county delivery. A landfill official says the intake may be doubled by the end of the year.

Trucks loaded with trash from west county cities and Los Angeles may double the amount of waste rolling into the Simi Valley Landfill by the end of the year, a spokesman for the company that operates the dump said Tuesday.

In a decision that infuriated Simi Valley and Moorpark officials, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors said it cannot reinstate a lapsed ordinance that prohibited most out-of-county waste from entering the dump, located west of Simi Valley.

Assistant County Counsel William C. Moritz told the supervisors during their meeting Tuesday that it is unconstitutional for local officials to prohibit landfill operators from importing trash into the county, according to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.

“We might wish sometimes that the laws were different,” Supervisor Maggie Kildee said. “It is very clear to me this interpretation is the right one. I feel very strongly we need to do things we can legally back up.”

Simi Valley City Councilman Bill Davis disagreed, arguing that his city’s situation was exceptional because residents stand to lose precious space in their only landfill and suffer from trash-generated pollution.

Moorpark City Councilman Scott Montgomery concurred and said the county should have reinstated the ordinance regardless of its questionable legality.

“The consequences of the county moving ahead with this ordinance is that years from now, some court may tell us it’s unlawful,” Montgomery said. “In the meantime, we would have saved those years for the residents of the east county.”

Montgomery and Davis, both of whom serve on the County Waste Commission, charged that the county’s unwillingness to update the permit is the latest in a series of abuses that re-emphasize the need for east county cities to form a separate East County Waste Task Force.

“The east county has learned a very valuable lesson,” Davis said. “There is no one who is going to protect us out here but ourselves.”

Supervisor Vicky Howard said she is hopeful that landfill operators will voluntarily agree to limit the amount of trash they accept from other areas.

“I think we will be able to work something out,” Howard said.

The director of the Simi Valley dump, which is owned and operated by Waste Management, said the company is seeking trash from the west county and Los Angeles to increase daily tonnage.

“The key here is that we are a business and we need to be economically viable,” Mike Williams said. “We can’t do that on the tonnage we’re taking in now.”

The dump now accepts about 900 tons a day, mostly from Simi Valley, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks. Williams said that with the limitations removed on the sources of trash, he hopes to increase the dump’s daily intake to 2,000 tons.

Assistant County Counsel Moritz said the county cannot hinder Waste Management’s efforts because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that restrictions on the flow of trash to dumps were unconstitutional for limiting the “free flow of commerce.”

He told the board that the county could be opening itself up to a costly civil-rights lawsuit if the supervisors reinstated the ban on out-of-county waste. The ban, which was implemented by the board in 1988, expired in March.

“If one kept such an act on the books, the county would have substantial liability,” Moritz said.

He said the county’s only options to limit the trash flow include seeking congressional action to change the law or forging agreements with private landfill owners.

But Davis said that had county staff notified the cities before the ordinance expired, he would have had more of a chance to urge county officials to renew it.

“I think this ordinance would have stood up to legal challenge,” Davis said. “I think a judge looking at this would say, ‘Wait a minute, what are these people going to do when their landfill is filled up with other people’s trash?’ ”

Davis said Simi Valley council members plan to meet directly with Waste Management officials to try to limit the amount of trash dumped in the landfill.

Waste Management’s Williams said he would be happy to meet with Simi Valley officials, but that the discussions would have little value without the participation of the county, which has jurisdiction over the landfill.

Thousand Oaks City Councilman Alex Fiore defended the county’s decision, saying that Waste Management is entitled to seek customers wherever it can.

“This is a country of free enterprise and it would seem that businesses should be able to attract business from whoever wants to deal with them.”

NEXT STEP

Officials from Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Moorpark and the county will discuss trash flow to the Simi Valley landfill and other waste issues Oct. 20 at 11 a.m. at Simi Valley City Hall, 2929 Tapo Canyon Road.