Riverside County to compete for Los Angeles’ trash

Reversing an earlier vote, the Riverside Countysupervisors today authorized the county to continue competing for a contractthat would import tons of Los Angeles County trash to two landfills east ofRiverside.

“If our bid wins, this could create more jobs and revenue for ourcounty,” Supervisor Jeff Stone said. “We need to keep our options open. Wecould always pull our bid back after more analysis.”

Last month, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to vacate thecounty Department of Waste Management’s bid to accept up to 225,000 tons oftrash annually from Los Angeles County.

Supervisor Marion Ashley led the opposition to the proposal, citingenvironmental concerns, including the damage of an increased number of heavytrucks going in and out of communities.

Both of the county-operated landfills where the rubbish would be bound –Lamb Canyon in Moreno Valley and the Badlands dump site near Beaumont — arein Ashley’s district.

Ashley cast the lone dissenting vote today on the decision to resumecompeting for the L.A. County contract.

“I don’t think we should be doing this. It’s premature,” he warned.

“This needs to be the subject of an environmental assessment. We’re settingourselves up for a lawsuit. Somebody’s not going to like this.”

The county is offering to take the waste at a cost of $36 a ton overfive years, which Stone estimated would generate anywhere from $800,000 to $1million annually for the county’s general fund.

“We can put another six deputies on the street,” he said.

In a separate 5-0 vote, the board authorized the transfer of $15.4million from waste management’s reserves to the county general fund in a movewhereby the county essentially compensated itself for acquiring and maintainingseven active and 32 inactive landfills.

General fund monies were used until the early 1980s to purchase theland, yet the county never recouped its expenditures through “rent” feescharged to waste management, a county agency. The arrearage amounted to $15.4million, plus future annual rent payments of $1 million.

According to Stone, waste management’s total liquid assets are in theneighborhood of $200 million. The county’s general fund reserve is about $150million.

About $9.5 million of the $15.4 million transfer will go to cover thecounty’s legal liabilities, Stone said.