Waste Management refiles request for expansion
By Darleen Principe darleen@theacorn.com

Waste Management resubmitted its application to expand the Simi Valley Landfill this week, more than five months after an initial submission was determined by the Ventura County planning division to be incomplete.

According to an official statement, the original application was revised to include information and documents either required by Ventura County or necessary to meet standards outlined by the California Environmental Quality Act.

"What happens now is that the county will review the application within 30 days and either deem it complete or incomplete like they did before," said Kit Cole, spokesperson for WM.

The waste hauler's proposal to expand the landfill includes more than tripling the size of the entire site, doubling the disposal area to 371 acres and doubling the disposable trash intake to 6,000 tons per day. The application also calls for moving G.I. Rubbish from its current location on W. Los Angeles Avenue to the landfill site off Erringer Road in order to consolidate services.

Dan Klemann, a senior planner with the county, said that if WM's latest application is considered complete, the county will then decide whether or not a new Environmental Impact Report must be submitted.

"The current environmental document will focus merely on the expansion of the landfill," Klemann said. "Everything they're proposing to do at this point in time goes above and beyond what was previously permitted."

Whether or not the county requires it, WM has already committed to hiring a thirdparty consultant to complete a new and full EIR when the time comes, Cole said.

The proposed expansion became a subject of controversy after Simi Valley Councilmember Barbra Williamson formed a citizens task force outside of the municipal sphere to monitor the project.

Last Saturday, the task force conducted an unscientific poll throughout Simi in an attempt to get a general idea of the city's stance on the proposal. According to task force member Louis Pandolfi, more than 550 residents- 83.1 percent of whom said they live in Simi Valley- participated in the poll.

Pandolfi said that the participants even included Mike Smith, vice president of Waste Management, and his son.

"The striking thing is that 72.5 percent of the people volunteered to give their names and addresses," he said. "Normally people don't want to put their names and addresses. That's a pretty striking number."

According to the unofficial results, which were discussed at Thursday's task force meeting and provided earlier this week to the Simi Valley Acorn, 93.4 percent of those polled stated they were against "tripling the size of the dump and the raising of the height of its garbage by 152 feet above what is now permitted."

Still, the task force has received some criticism regarding the manner in which the poll was conducted.

Simi Valley Councilmember Glen Becerra said that if the poll is "not done with the correct scientific protocol, then those types of surveys mean nothing."

"There's no question that one of the goals of the task force is to create an 'us' versus 'them' mentality," Becerra said. "They're trying to say that they are against the (landfill expansion) and are protecting the citizens and the City Council is not, but I think if you were to poll each council member, they'd say they're not for this project or against it- they haven't made up their minds yet. I will say every person on this council has a concern about what impacts will be caused by this expansion."

Becerra also questioned the verbiage used in the polling, pointing out the task force's decision to use the word "dump," and calling some of the questions loaded.

"They had a chance to show that they are really honest about getting some thoughtful results, but instead they've shown what they've shown over and over again- that they are completely biased toward this project and are trying to build a bias against it," Becerra said.

Pandolfi, who announced last month that he was no longer "impartial" to the project, said he wrote the questions and discussed them with the rest of the task force before using them.

"I don't know a poll where the questions are not biased," Pandolfi said. "Polls are not necessarily meant to be unbiased. The city should be conducting their own poll if they think this was a meaningless poll. This was really for us- to help us determine whether we should disband the task force or continue the task force.

"If (Becerra) thinks it's a personal battle between us and the city, and us and Waste Management, he's completely off base," Pandolfi continued. "His thought process is way too small for the issue at stake."

Pandolfi said he expects the task force will eventually come out in support of the expansion- if it looks like the city is getting its proper due in return.

"The city through its naiveté has failed to get what the city deserves from the landfill- the county gets over $3 million a year and the city gets chicken feed, . . ." Pandolfi said. "What we want is the city to get its just compensation from having to take the negative impacts of the dump, and those impacts only grow if the expansion goes forward and we start getting more garbage from outside of Simi Valley."

Kit Cole of WM had no comment on the poll.

Task force questions

Below are the five questions the Landfill Expansion Task Force members asked random people last Saturday as part of their survey:

1. Are you a resident of Simi Valley or Moorpark?

2. Are you in favor of the Simi Valley dump taking garbage from Los Angeles County and more than 120 other Cities and Counties for burial in Simi Valley?

3. Do you support the more than tripling the size of the dump and the raising of the height of its garbage by 152 feet above what is now permitted?

4. City Councilmember Barbra Williamson has formed a Task Force to study and inform the residents of the dump expansion. Do you support Councilmember Williamson for taking this action?

5. Waste Management, owner of the Simi Valley dump, has been convicted of hundreds of crimes and labeled a criminal enterprise by the District Attorney and California Courts. Is Waste

Management a company

you trust?

- Questions provided by Louis Pandolfi