Jeff Ritchie, vice president of Escondido Disposal Inc., said the move was prompted by increasing demand from industrial recyclers and by his company's commitment to preserving dwindling capacity in local landfills.

"We've been looking to do this for a while, and we finally found a sustainable market," said Ritchie, whose company handles trash and recycling for Escondido, Vista, San Marcos, Encinitas and Poway. "We're always looking for ways to divert more materials away from landfills."

Waste Management, which handles trash and recycling for Oceanside, Carlsbad, Solana Beach and Del Mar, began allowing customers to recycle Styrofoam for the same reasons, company spokeswoman Charissa McAfee said this week.

Customers should simply put Styrofoam into their blue recycling bins, Ritchie and McAfee said. The lightweight white plastic is frequently used for food containers, disposable cups and meat packaging from grocery stores.

All of these types of Styrofoam can now be recycled, but the small Styrofoam "peanuts" frequently used as packing materials are not yet eligible for recycling and should continue to be put in the gray trash bins.

However, large chunks of Styrofoam used in packaging for TVs or computer screens can be recycled.

Environmental groups said the decision by the trash haulers to recycle Styrofoam, which has become a growing trend across the country in recent years, was a step in the right direction ---- but only a small step.

They said it would be preferable for people to stop buying and using Styrofoam, a petroleum-based form of plastic that isn't biodegradable.

"While this is good news, we should be phasing out Styrofoam and moving to more sustainable materials," said Dan Jacobson, legislative director for Environment California in Sacramento. "Styrofoam is typically used only once, whether it's for food you eat or for shipping your TV. This kind of recycling will only add a second use, not make it sustainable."

Jacobson also noted that using Styrofoam for hot beverages has been linked to cancer, because heat releases the carcinogen styrene from the material.

Recycling Styrofoam is also unlikely to help clean up local waterways, said Alicia Glassco, head of San Diego Coastkeeper's marine debris and education programs.

"Plastic recycling is a step in the right direction," said Glassco, adding that less Styrofoam in landfills would be a welcome change. "But plastics are the debris we find most often during cleanups, and Coastkeeper doesn't believe recycling will stop the flow."

Ritchie, the EDI vice president, said his company agrees that Styrofoam should be phased out as quickly as possible. But he said recycling was a viable option when people have no other choice.

Ritchie said his company was particularly interested in having customers recycle larger pieces of Styrofoam, such as those that come with TVs or computer screens, because those pieces were more valuable to industrial recyclers. He said smaller food Styrofoam containers could still be placed in blue bins, but that they were a lower priority.

In its most recent newsletter, EDI told customers in all of its cities that the company would begin recycling Styrofoam, Ritchie said. Waste Management has only notified Del Mar customers, with other cities to follow shortly, McAfee said.

Call staff writer David Garrick at 760-740-5468

October 10, 2011                                                                                                         (916) 329-9180

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed legislation yesterday that would have protected drinking water and sacred sites in San Diego County by stopping plans to build a dump in Gregory Canyon.

Although SB 833, by Sen. Juan Vargas, enjoyed broad bipartisan support – clearing the floor of the Senate 32-3 and the Assembly 70-1, Gov. Brown decided to go against the legislature and allow the Gregory Canyon Landfill project to move forward.

“It is unfortunate that Governor Brown has decided to go against the voice of California’s legislature in support of the Gregory Canyon Landfill,” said Robert Smith, Chairman of the Pala Band of Mission Indians, “Not only will this landfill threaten major detrimental impacts to both surface and groundwater, it will desecrate sacred Native American cultural sites.”

Gregory Canyon is located on the banks of the San Luis Rey River, home to multiple endangered species, on top of an aquifer that supplies water to thousands of homes and on a known earthquake fault.

“We are deeply disappointed in Governor Brown's decision,” said Damon Nagami, staff attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "This is the wrong place to build a dump. It was unnecessary thirty years ago when first proposed and it’s still unnecessary."

The landfill would be located at the base of two important cultural sites of the Luiseno people. According to Luiseno tradition, Gregory Mountain is the resting place of Taakwic, a powerful spirit that appears as a fireball to collect the souls of the dead. Both Gregory Mountain and Medicine Rock, a 60-foot high boulder located just outside the boundary of the proposed landfill, have remained the site of religious ceremonies and traditions for centuries.

The veto is just the latest chapter in the fight to save Gregory Canyon; there has been a long and continuous struggle to protect this valuable resource from becoming the site of a garbage dump.

County officials repeatedly rejected Gregory Canyon as a potential site in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1994, Gregory Canyon Ltd., the landfill proponents, abandoned the County’s site selection and used a misleading countywide ballot initiative to authorize a landfill on the site if all permits were obtained for the project.

After 17 years, the proposed Gregory Canyon Landfill has only obtained one of its permits.

It is certain that Gov. Brown’s decision will not put an end to this issue. The Save Gregory Canyon Coalition will continue to work toward stopping the Gregory Canyon Landfill.

“The fight does not stop here,” Smith said. “There is a reason that SB 833 received near unanimous support in both the Assembly and Senate and why it was endorsed by over two dozen tribes along with environmental, religious and planning organizations. This is just the beginning; the Save Gregory Canyon Coalition plans to use every resource and option at our disposal to prevent this horrible dump from becoming a reality.”

 ###

When Gregory Canyon Ltd. brags about its technological wonder, the experimental landfill liner that purportedly won't leak, I'm reminded of the technological wonder of a century ago, that other liner that couldn't leak: the luxury steamship liner RMS Titanic.

Quoting Wikipedia, "Titanic was designed by experienced engineers, using some of the most advanced technologies and extensive safety features of its time."

Four days out of Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York, RMS Titanic struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912, that gashed her "unsinkable" hull.

Leaking beyond control, she sank in two hours and 40 minutes. Death toll: 1,517 passengers and crew.

RMS Titanic had complied with every safety regulation and enjoyed an unlimited construction budget, as befits an ultra-luxury liner.

Gregory Canyon's attorney, Bill Morrow, (FORUM, Sept. 21) fails to grasp the danger that his Gregory Canyon dump poses to the vast underground San Luis Rey aquifer that supplies 20 percent of the City of Oceanside's drinking water, and serves homes and farms along Highway 76 as their only water supply.

Who could be so short-sighted as to risk this vast underground reservoir that serves our thirsty county by building a dump over it?

A landfill brings 30 years of profits to its operator, but can destroy the aquifer for eternity.

Aquifers take eons to develop. Water filters through bedrock constantly re-fractured by frequent minor earthquakes along the Elsinore and San Jacinto Faults ---- extensions of the San Andreas.

It is this fractured bedrock, scouring the water of organic material on its long, slow journey from and through the mountains ---- water that fell to earth over a century ago ---- that is now the county's purest water source.

But the San Jacinto is the most active of all Southern California faults, with the most pent-up energy. A major earthquake like the 6.4 that hit Pala at 4:25 a.m. on Christmas 1899, collapsing the massive roof beams of Pala's San Antonio Mission, would rock this landfill.

Can any landfill liner, ravaged by hybrid acid and yet-unknown chemical compounds, stave off deterioration and seismic torquing for centuries?

Toxic leachate from the Gregory Canyon Landfill could ooze into bedrock any time, from decades to centuries from now, a witches' brew liquefied from chemicals, pesticides, plastics, petroleum products, cleaning supplies, paints, mercury, batteries ---- anything a careless public throws in its trash ---- resulting in hazardous compounds unable to be neutralized.

Once that ooze coats the billion individual shards of bedrock, a thousand HazMat-suited workers could not scrub away the chemical scum. When the aquifer is defiled, so is the underground river flowing through it. Once polluted, it becomes a permanent distributor of poisoned water ---- all the way to the ocean.

We should risk this, just so Gregory Canyon Ltd. gets 30 years of profits?

Have we no conscience for future generations' needs?

Remember the leaking Titanic ---- and urge Gov. Brown to protect the San Luis Rey aquifer by signing SB 833. No dumps on California rivers!

As Chairman of the Pala Band of Mission Indians for nearly a quarter century, I have seen dramatic changes take place throughout Indian Country. But one thing that has not and never will change is the importance that Native Americans place on their cultural traditions and sacred sites.  

In an effort to protect two sacred sites, the Pala Band, other tribes, and a broad coalition of environmental, religious, labor, and planning organizations supported SB 833, a bill that would stop the construction of a proposed landfill next to the Pala Reservation and on the banks of the San Luis Rey River in northern San Diego County. This coalition supported the bill because the proposed landfill would threaten critical drinking water sources and would desecrate two sites considered sacred by Southern California tribes. SB 833 passed the Legislature with nearly unanimous support, and the bill now is before Gov. Brown. We urge him to sign the bill.

The environmental reasons for not burying 30-million tons of waste next to a river and other water sources are easy to see, and claims that the liner to be built would protect those water sources forever must be questioned in light of recent technological failures in the Gulf of Mexico and Japan. Here, a 500-foot high pile of buried waste would threaten water supplies long after the project proponents have left with their money, leaving any cleanup to future taxpayers. Building at this site also would require the construction of a bridge across the river to provide sole access, the relocation of high-voltage electrical transmission towers, and the possible relocation of two pipelines that provide critical imported water to the county.

What makes the site even worse for a landfill is that the garbage would be buried on the side of Gregory Mountain, which forms the eastern side of the canyon. According to Luiseño tradition, Gregory Mountain (known as Chokla to the tribes) is the resting place of Taakwic, a powerful spirit that appears as a fireball to collect the souls of the dead. Both Chokla and Medicine Rock, a 60-foot high boulder located just outside the boundary of the proposed landfill, have been the site of religious ceremonies and spiritual contemplation for centuries. The evidence of that long history is visible in the pictographs that mark the surface of Medicine Rock.

The fact that Gregory Mountain and Medicine Rock are sacred sites was recognized by county officials in the 1980s when the county conducted a series of studies on siting a landfill. The presence of these sacred sites was one of the reasons the Pala Band and other tribes opposed the landfill when it was proposed at that time and one of the reasons the county refused to approve the site for a landfill. When the county would not give its approval, the proponents of the project, who were well aware of these sacred sites, funded a misleading county-wide initiative that avoided the need for the approval of any elected official.

SB 833 was narrowly drafted to prevent this landfill from desecrating these sacred sites. Because it is burying garbage on the mountain that is opposed, the bill would not affect other existing or proposed projects or prevent other uses of the property. The tribes do not oppose all projects near Gregory Mountain, and a peaking power station recently was built across State Route 76 from the proposed landfill without their opposition.

Passage of SB 833 was gratifying because it confirmed the state’s respect for the deeply held values of other cultures, and recognized the need to preserve critical resources that cannot be replaced once damaged. The supporters of SB 833 trust that Gov. Brown will recognize the cultural values at stake here and respect the prudent judgment of a nearly unanimous Legislature by signing SB 833 into law.

But few people ever get to see the canyon itself, which is on private property that has been owned by developer Gregory Canyon Ltd. for about 15 years.

Proponents of the dump say the land already has been significantly disturbed, but would be restored to a natural state after the operation is closed in 30 years. Opponents say the landfill would be potentially harmful to a nearby waterway and would forever change a landscape that is of significant cultural importance to the Pala Band of Mission Indians.

The footprint of the dump would be 208 acres, the operation would be on a total of 308 acres, and the entire parcel owned by the developer is 1,700 acres.

Dotted with coastal scrub, cottonwood trees and wildlife that includes mountain lions, the canyon is typical of much of Southern California's open space. The San Luis Rey River runs through the property, though it is a dry strip of sand in the summer months. Gregory Mountain stands a modest 1,825 feet.

"Calling it a canyon is really kind of an exaggeration," said Shasta Gaughen, environmental director for the Pala band. "It's actually just a nook between a couple of different hills."

An imperfect place

Although the canyon will never be mistaken for Yosemite Valley, Gaughen said it is precious to the Pala tribe, who in late August held a powwow at the foot of Gregory Mountain and whose ancestors used the canyon for coming-of-age rituals. Like other Luiseno Indians, the Pala tribe believes the mountain, which members call Chokla, also is one of the homes of Takwic, a sacred figure who appears as a fireball and collects souls of the dead.

"The whole mountain is sacred," said Gaughen, who teaches cultural anthropology and human origins at Cal State San Marcos. Before being appointed the tribe's environmental director in November, Gaughen was its historic preservation officer, and she earned a doctorate in anthropology from the University of New Mexico this year.

"I'm really not exactly free of bias, but it's not the kind of spot that you can imagine somebody looking at and saying, 'Hey, that's a good place for a dump,'" Gaughen said last week as she hiked near the canyon.

Nancy Chase, spokeswoman for Gregory Canyon Ltd., in fact sees the land as a good site for a landfill.

"Anytime I've taken anybody to the site, their reaction has been, 'What's the big deal?'" Chase said Thursday, recalling a ranch that operated on the land until about 12 years ago. "It's not a pristine canyon. For 60 years, there were 3,000 head of cattle that were pooing and peeing in the river."

Gaughen said that while it's true the land has been disturbed and doesn't qualify for legal protection, it still is significant to the Pala people.

"From the Native American perspective, yeah, it's been disturbed," she said. "But this was a huge site. Their perspective is, 'Our people lived and slept and ate and had their ceremonies here.' Just because some cow bones were found in them from the dairy doesn't mean that it's not significant to us. It proves that we were here. It's proof of our use of the land."

Rich with tribal history

On the Pala land near the base of Gregory Mountain, the three-story tall Medicine Rock is a reminder of the land's past. Petroglyphs believed to be left by adolescents participating in puberty ceremonies on the land still can be seen on the rock, which Gaughen said had been used for thousands of years. Describing some of the markings on the stone, she reached down and picked up a shard of pottery not far from bedrock mortars.

"All along the base of the mountain you can find evidence of occupation," Gaughen said. "Food-gathering sites and camping sites. A lot of what you find along here has ritual significance."

The land is off-limits to hikers, but people can get an idea of its location from Highway 76 by driving about 3.5 miles east of Interstate 15 or about two miles west of the Pala Casino Spa & Resort, also on Highway 76.

From a vantage point near a San Diego Gas & Electric Co. plant on the north side of the highway, Gregory Canyon can be spotted to the south by finding the hill with a dirt road that zigzags up its side. Just to the east of that hill is Gregory Mountain, and the canyon is between the two peaks.

The dump would be created by digging into the canyon and installing a 7-foot multilayer protective liner. The landfill would operate for 30 years, taking in 1 million tons of solid waste a year, before it would be closed and capped.

"See that SDG&E tower up there?" Gaughen said, pointing midway up Gregory Mountain from the Pala property. "That's going to have to be moved because the garbage is going to be piled up that high. It's going to completely change the contours of the landscape. This is an enormous undertaking."

Chase said the landfill indeed would be about that high, but its operation would not be seen from the highway because it would be blocked by a landscaped berm.

Gaughen said filling in the canyon will cause the height of the Gregory Mountain peak to appear much lower, which would be a significant cultural loss to Pala.

"This peak is very much a big landmark, geographically, not just for Pala but for all these surrounding communities," Gaughen said. "This is one of the most significant geographic markers for that group. This is where tribes from all around the whole area would come for particular rituals, mostly related to puberty."

Chase said Gregory Canyon Ltd. has offered to give the peak to Pala and to create a trail to it, allowing the people who consider the site sacred to finally have easy access to it. The landowner also has offered 1,400 acres of the land for the tribe if the landfill is built, she said.

"We would be required to return the finished landfill to its natural vegetation," Chase said. "We offered to give them that as well, so in 30 years, we'd give them the whole thing."

Gaughen said Pala offered the developer $30 million for the property in 2009 to prevent the landfill from being built, an offer that was rejected.

Awaiting governor's decision

The fate of the landfill remains unknown.

The project has been the center of a battle for more than 15 years, and challenges from the Pala tribe, cities and environmental groups have repeatedly delayed the project.

With an environmental impact report completed and a solid waste permit to operate the landfill approved, the developer is working to acquire other major permits and could have the landfill up and running within two years, Chase said.

But there is yet another legal challenge ahead for the developer. The Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, RiverWatch and the Pala tribe have sued the county Department of Environmental Health for issuing the solid waste permit.

A greater threat to the project is Senate Bill 833, which would make construction of a landfill on the site illegal. The measure has passed the state Senate and Assembly and now is one of 600 bills Gov. Jerry Brown has until Oct. 9 to sign or veto.

Chase said she is encouraged that Brown said last week that he planned to veto numerous bills, but she declined to discuss how her company would react if the bill becomes law.

Siting a dump on a river was borne of a brainstorm by a speculator with a purchase option and transformed into the only site in the entirety of San Diego County pre-zoned as a landfill by a clever developer. It was done by voter trickery using the initiative process with a slick million-dollar brochure mailing by the trash dump developer, already rejected three times by expert consultant studies for this same site.

Voters received a fake picture of Charger Stadium overflowing with garbage, reckless hyperbole implying we desperately needed a new dump. The coup d'etat was a powerful San Diego Union-Tribune editorial endorsing the ballot box spot zone scam.

Gullible voters who never like NIMBY's bought this hook, line and sinker. No voters had heard of Gregory Canyon. No one cared. It wasn't in their backyard. The developer, the late Richard Chase of ignominious "Trash Incinerator Plant" fame, used a countywide ballot initiative to rezone the canyon as a landfill site, negating the county's general plan and zoning, stripping and usurping the land-use power of our elected public officials. Political leadership was weak. The Board of Supervisors acted like deer caught in headlights.

In the 1980s and '90s, the county paid for three separate studies of more than 100 dump sites. Every study rejected Gregory Canyon as one of the worst of 100 dump sites. The dumpsite sits on the banks of the river and is atop a vital aquifer on a bed of fractured rock.

Notwithstanding source separation, toxic waste like pesticides, solvents, paint, chemicals, lead batteries, mercury thermometers, light bulbs, electronic products, medical waste and myriad toxic compounds slip into the wastestream illegally on a daily basis on every truckload waved through the gate going to the landfill. It is not practicable to screen it out. The toxic waste breaks down over time, especially with compaction, and mixes with the rainfall pouring into the canyon, flows through rips in the plastic liner, past the corroded and crushed leachate collection systems and then through the fractured granite base into the aquifer and downstream.

The San Luis Rey River aquifers (five of them) supply agriculture and 200,000 North County residents precious water.

Nobody but a damned fool puts a toxic dump atop a precious water resource.

If we needed a new dump in the 1980s, we don't need one now.

Recycling, new compaction methods, and expanded dump capacity has eliminated any need. In 1996, California permitted two new mega-landfill sites in the desert, each with capacity for all six Southern California counties solid waste for the next 100 years.

Tell Gov. Brown to sign SB 833.

Gregory Canyon is a pristine canyon in northern San Diego County along the banks of the San Luis Rey River. The eastern slope of the canyon is formed by Gregory Mountain, or Chokla to local tribes. It is the resting place of an important spiritual figure known as Takwic who collects the souls of the dead. At the base of the mountain and on the boundary of the proposed landfill site is Medicine Rock, a sacred site that has been used for centuries for puberty ceremonies, religious rituals, and healing. The pictographs are still visible to this day on its surface. These sites are sacred to thousands of the region's native tribal members. Putting a dump here would be akin to building a dump next to Jerusalem's Wailing Wall or St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

In addition to desecrating sacred sites, the landfill would be built very close to one of the last naturally flowing rivers in Southern California. The San Luis Rey River and its aquifers are the source of drinking water for thousands of local residents. Despite the landfill proponents' claim that their landfill liner is state-of-the-art, experts agree that eventually all liners leak. Future generations will wonder why we allowed a dump to be built next to a drinking water source.  As we have seen time and time again, including recently with the oil spill in the Gulf, accidents happen, and drinking water contamination is something that cannot be reversed – ever.

The canyon is also an unspoiled habitat for dozens of protected and endangered species, including the majestic golden eagle. On a quiet afternoon, you can see it soaring over the canyon and roosting on the mountaintop.

Proponents say that stopping this dump is bad for business, but they have known since this site was first proposed in the 1980s that it is sacred to local tribes and practically on the banks of a river. Part of being a civilized nation is being good stewards of the land and respecting the values of other cultures. We cannot let a short-term profit take precedence over the permanent desecration of sacred sites and contamination of drinking water.

If you value clean drinking water and respect what other cultures hold sacred, please contact Governor Jerry Brown at (916) 445-2841 and urge him to sign SB 833 and preserve Gregory Canyon now and forever. www.savegregorycanyon.org

OK, OK. Don’t get excited.

For all you Gregory Canyon mavens, I know full well that Brown hasn’t yet signed the bill that would block the dump next to the San Luis Rey River and on a location the Pala Indians consider sacred.

If past is prologue, Brown could pull out the veto pen. After all, his former chief of staff, Gov. Gray Davis, blocked similar legislation in 2000, declaring that he did not favor overturning elections. (Two countywide initiatives gave green lights to Gregory Canyon Ltd., the partnership that over 20 years has invested more than $40 million in a mirage that always recedes the closer it gets to final approval.)

If, however, Brown signs SB 833, there will be just one option left. Gregory Canyon Ltd., a collection of private investors with pockets as deep as the Mariana Trench and the patience of Job, will have to file a lawsuit declaring SB 833 unconstitutional. That will take years to decide, generating a sort of stimulus program for the legal profession.

One persuasive argument for Gregory Canyon is the hundreds of high-paying jobs it will draw to North County.

That’s no doubt true. And if there’s a toxic spill into the aquifer, that too will create cleanup jobs, though the social benefit may be dubious.

From its conception as a landfill in a terrible location, Gregory Canyon has been about power politics.

Maybe I’m hallucinating, but I see Brown saying to hell with it.

In fact, using the ballot box for complex land-use decisions usually isn’t fair to voters. That’s why we have staff experts at the County of San Diego to delve into the details. When these officials reviewed the project in the early 1990s, they rejected the site as inappropriate. The proposed dump is on a river, in an earthquake zone. Have we learned nothing by other disasters? We should fight against projects that could result in environmental, cultural and health catastrophes.

Seldom do Democrats and Republicans agree on anything in Sacramento. But they voted 70-1 to stop this. If the Gregory Canyon dump is built, we can be assured that our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will look back and ask “Who were these fools that let a dump get built right on a river?” Let’s be good ancestors and stop this nonsense. -- State Sen. Juan Vargas, 40th District

Senate Bill 833 recognizes and corrects the injustice that was done by ballot-box planning designed to allow a dump at a site that local agencies continually rejected. The landfill would never have been allowed if not for an end-run by the dump’s backers to get around the local planning process with their misleading 1994 ballot initiative.

Why would anyone ever build a dump next to a river? And why would the Union-Tribune, or anyone else, support such a reckless plan? Signing Senate Bill 833, and supporting what San Diego’s local agencies recommended before the 1994 vote, is the right thing to do. -- Robert Smith, Chairman, Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association

In doing so, lawmakers have overruled the county Board of Supervisors, the courts and two public votes in favor of the Gregory Canyon landfill along state Route 76 and near the Pala Indian Reservation.

Conversely, lawmakers behind the successful measure to stop the project say intervention was necessary to preserve a Native American cultural site and to protect the San Luis Rey River from possible contamination.

The 70-1 vote in the Assembly sent the measure to Gov. Jerry Brown, who has until Oct. 9 to decide its fate.

Brown has not taken a position. His former chief of staff, Gray Davis, vetoed similar legislation in 2000 when he was governor, citing a reluctance to undo the will of local voters.

Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego, cast the lone no vote, saying the Legislature should not undo what the public and courts have already decided.

“I don’t think it’s right for the Legislature to come in at the last minute,” Fletcher said.

But Assemblyman Ben Hueso, D-San Diego, countered that times have changed enough to justify action. Today, the region does not need to threaten a river and sacred site for an unnecessary landfill, said Hueso, who carried the bill on the floor.

“We have to value our environment and the cultural resources more than the demand for a landfill,” he said.

The vote infuriated Supervisor Ron Roberts, who backs the landfill.

“They are trying to micromanage from Sacramento,” Roberts said in a telephone interview. “Most of them wouldn’t have a clue where this is or the issues.”

Roberts disagrees with Hueso’s assessment that existing landfills will have space as recycling campaigns expand.

“This is badly needed in North County, It was needed years ago and it will become painfully clear down the road,” he said. Roberts, in a jab at environmentalists, noted that North County will have to ship its trash great distances, adding to air pollution and traffic woes across the region.

Robert Smith, chairman of the Pala Band of Mission Indians, heralded the approval.

“This bill is the culmination of decades of steadfast opposition and will hopefully put to an end the attempt to desecrate Gregory Mountain, Medicine Rock and other scared sites, which have been an integral part of Pala’s history for generations,” Smith said in a statement after the vote.

In an interview, Gregory Canyon LTD spokeswoman Nancy Chase said the company will urge the governor to veto the legislation.

“The ultimate message is the voters have spoken and the Legislature should not interfere with local control,” she said.

The developer’s written statement blasted lawmakers for touting job creation but then they “cast disturbing votes that do just the opposite.”

The landfill would bring “hundreds of high-paying jobs to San Diego County,” the statement said.

Gregory Canyon has a long and divisive history spread across the past two decades. In 1994 and again in 2004, county residents backed the developers in two separate ballots to determine the future of the landfill. The developers also have been busily securing permits, but need several more from various agencies.

Senate Bill 833, carried by Sen. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, would ban any landfill in San Diego County that is within 1,000 feet of the San Luis Rey River or that close to sites deemed sacred by American Indians.

Said Vargas, “Everyone came together to send a clear, loud message that both the San Luis Rey River, an important drinking water source, and an important sacred site must be protected from contamination and desecration.”

Gregory Canyon is near the Pala Indian Reservation. The Pala Band of Mission Indians considers Gregory Mountain, known as “Chokla,” as a resting place for a tribal spirit named Takwic. A landfill would desecrate such a sacred ritual place, as well as nearby medicine rock marked with Native American pictographs, they say.

The landfill developers say the landfill would be state-of-the-art and exceed all environmental protection regulations designed to prevent damage to the river and wildlife.

The landfill would span 308 acres inside a 1,770-acre parcel about three miles east of I-15 and two miles southwest of the community of Pala.

Among the San Diego County delegation, Republican Assemblymen Martin Garrick of Solana Beach and Brian Jones of Santee abstained. San Diego Democrats were united in favor of the bill.

mike.gardner@uniontrib.com (916) 445-2934

It's always about two years away from opening.

Lawsuits and other delays repeatedly have pushed back the opening of the landfill, planned near Pala on 308 acres of an undeveloped, 1,770-acre parcel south of Highway 76 and about three miles east of Interstate 15.

But with developer Gregory Canyon Ltd. receiving a solid-waste permit in July to operate the landfill and major permit applications already being processed, the landfill could be closer to reality than at any time in its history.

"I would say the light is at the end of the tunnel, and it's not a train coming at us," Gregory Canyon spokeswoman Nancy Chase said Thursday. "We're definitely in the final stages, having great support from various agencies."

Chase said permits from the Regional Water Quality Control Board and the county Air Pollution Control District could be issued by the end of the year, and a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could be issued by mid-2012.

"We plan to be under construction by the end of 2012 or the third quarter," Chase said. "The end of '12 is definitely the goal, and a realistic one."

That may sound familiar to anyone who has followed the progress of the landfill since its site was identified in a 1994 ballot proposition that allows for its construction.

A 1996 North County Times article quoted Nancy Chase's husband, Richard Chase, who was the project manager for Gregory Canyon before his death two years ago, as saying the landfill could open in 1998. Two years later, he predicted the landfill would open in 2000. More recently, a 2008 North County Times article said construction could begin in mid-2009.

The latest prediction that permits could be issued by the end of next year is not unrealistic, according to authorities at some of the agencies involved in the process. But there still is much paperwork to fill out before a shovel hits the ground, with a full 19 permits or approvals identified as needed from the county, the state and the federal government. Some permits also require environmental studies to determine how the landfill would affect water, air and ground.

Even if all permits are issued without delay, the project still has challenges beyond bureaucratic approvals.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, RiverWatch and the Pala Band of Mission Indians have sued the county Department of Environmental Health for issuing the solid-waste permit, and state Sen. Juan Vargas has introduced Senate Bill 833, which would prohibit a landfill from being built in Gregory Canyon.

The bill was passed by the state Senate earlier this year, and on Wednesday was scheduled by the Assembly Appropriations Committee for a hearing Aug. 25.

If passed by the committee, the bill would go to the Assembly floor for a vote. If approved, it would move to the governor's desk for final approval.

As for approvals needed from agencies, the developer has applied to the San Diego Air Pollution Control District for a permit that addresses how the landfill will affect air quality. County senior engineer Steve Moore said the permit is needed because landfills create air pollution through emissions of methane, carbon dioxide and other gases.

"We want to be sure they're going to abide by the rules and regulations, and we're working quite hard on it right now," Moore said recently. "We still have some issues we're working on. I would say there are some significant issues, but we are working with them and discussing terms of the permit right now."

While Chase said she expects the permit to be issued by the end of the year, Moore was less specific and predicted it could take "a year or less" to complete the process, which includes a 30-day public comment period once a draft permit is released.

If the landfill is built, the operator would have to apply for a federal permit regarding emissions 12 months after it opens, he said.

Numerous permits

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requires the developer to qualify for a permit that addresses disturbances to "waters of the U.S." As explained by Bill Miller, senior project manager with the corps' regulatory division, a water of the U.S. is any water, including ephemeral streams that flow only when it's raining that have a connection to a traditionally navigable body of water.

The applicant needs a Section 404 permit, which refers to the section of the Clean Water Act that regulates the depositing of dredged or fill material into a water of the U.S.

Miller said the permit will require an environmental impact statement, which will be conducted in the summer of 2012. A draft version of the study will be released for a 45-day public review before a final version is completed and presented to the agency to decide whether to issue the permit, he said.

The developer also needs a permit that deals with how to mitigate the project's effects on the water. That permit is addressed in section 401 of the Clean Water Act and is issued by the Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Jimmy Smith, assistant executive officer with the Regional Water Quality Control Board, said the agency is working with the applicant on how to mitigate the water quality impacts from the project.

The agency also is responsible for issuing a Waste Discharge Requirement permit, which is required for projects that discharge waste that could affect water quality. The agency first will have to prepare a draft of the permit for a 45-day public review, he said.

If everything goes smoothly, Smith said, the permits could be issued as soon as February.

"Our calendar is pretty booked now to the end of the year, so I don't anticipate this coming before our board until early next year," he said.

The developer also needs a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit from the state Water Resources Control Board, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services permit that addresses the Endangered Species Act, a state Water Resources Board permit that addresses water appropriation, a California Department of Transportation permit to encroach on Highway 76, and a state Historic Preservation Office permit regarding cultural resources.

The county Public Works Department is responsible for permits for bridge and waterway alterations. The county Department of Planning and Land Use is responsible for building and grading permits and for a permit to address habitat loss. The developer also would need approval from the Public Utilities Commission to relocate easements and towers.

Opponents of the landfill say it is not needed and is in an inappropriate location; supporters say it is needed to meet the needs of the growing region.

With no landfill in North County, most trash is hauled to the Miramar, Otay or Sycamore landfills, said Gig Conaughton, public information officer for San Diego County. About 5 percent of the county's waste is taken to a landfill in Orange County, he said.


Call staff writer Gary Warth at 760-740-5410.

“It benefits all San Diego ratepayers,” Dale said, "everybody purchasing water from the California Water Authority. There would be more water available for other users.”

However, Dale is concerned that a developer’s proposal to build a landfill at Gregory Canyon could eventually pollute the San Luis Rey river, which feeds into the groundwater basin. Developers have spent almost 20 years and millions of dollars working to win approval for the landfill.

Dale said even if leakage from the landfill was prevented for a century, the city needs to be thinking longer term if it is investing in generating new water sources.

"Should some sort of leak occur," she said, "whether at the Gregory Canyon site or anywhere else, it is certainly something that would have a cost that would be born by ratepayers."

Councilmember Gary Felien is part of the city council’s pro-development majority that recently voted against a bill by State Senator Juan Vargas to stop the landfill. Felien said he trusts the environmental review process.

“Certainly water is going to be the key issue,” Felien said. “And if I thought there was any threat to the water whatsoever, it is certainly easier to find something to do with the trash than find new water. That’s why people more educated than myself are reviewing the proposal to make sure it represents no threat to the water."

Felien said he knows some of the people involved in the Gregory Canyon landfill proposal personally, but he has not received any campaign contributions from the developer.

The state agency that overseas trash dumps, CalRecycle, recently granted a permit for Gregory Canyon landfill, saying it complies with state regulations, and the benefits outweigh the problems. The project still needs more permits, including one from the San Diego Water Quality Control Board.

I'm totally opposed to this, "Utilities Commission chairman Brian Boyle said in urging the commission to advise the City Council to continue the city's long-standing opposition to the landfill.

"We know for sure there is no landfill in history that has not failed," Boyle said.

The landfill proposed by Gregory Canyon Ltd. Would cover more than 200 acres of land near Pala.

The City Council in a 3-2 vote last month adopted a resolution opposing state legislation that would kill the landfill. Councilmen Jerry Kern, Jack Feller and Gary Felien voted for the measure and Mayor Jim Wood and Councilwoman Esther Sanchez voted against it.

Felien initially wanted the council to reverse the city's long-standing opposition to the landfill, but backed off when he failed to win support from other council members.

Wood and Sanchez have opposed the landfill. Kern said the decision should be left to regulators.

Resident Larry Barry said at Tuesday's meeting that concerns over pollution from the landfill have been exaggerated.

"The hysteria that's going over this is nuts," Barry said. "We need to put our trash somewhere."

But Nadine Scott, chairwoman of the city Integrated Waste Commission, said objections raised over the landfill were legitimate.

"There's no need for this landfill or perhaps any other in the future," Scott said.

Oceanside has opposed the landfill since 1990 because city officials said it threatens water the city gets from the San Luis Rey aquifer, which the city treats to provide about 20 percent of its drinking water.

The city at one point joined a lawsuit filed by the Pala Band of Indians and an environmental group challenging the environmental impact report done of the landfill.

The Pala Band is continuing its court fight against the landfill in part because it intrudes on land considered sacred by the tribe.

Resident Jim Hamilton, who also attended Tuesday's meeting, said the landfill was too risky.

"What happens if it fails? Then we potentially have lost 20 percent of our water supply, which is awful, terrible," Hamilton said. "The consequences are severe. They're not something we can walk away from."

Call staff writer Ray Huard at 760-901-4062.

The San Diego County Department of Environmental Health issued a solid waste facility permit Monday to allow Gregory Canyon Landfill to operate if it is ever built.

The county department, acting as the state's solid waste local enforcement agency, had recommended approval of the permit in May, and the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) concurred with the recommendation July 15.

In another recent development, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers notified developer Gregory Canyon Ltd. on July 8 that the project will require a federal Environmental Impact Statement. Bill Miller, a senior project manager with the Army Corps of Engineers' regulatory division, said the study has begun and should be complete next summer. Several other federal, state and local permits are needed before the developer can begin construction.

Gregory Canyon Ltd. has proposed the 308-acre landfill near Pala on the south side of Highway 76, about three miles east of Interstate 15. The developer has said the landfill is needed to meet the needs of the growing region, while environmental groups have opposed it because of its proximity to the San Luis Rey River. The Pala Band of Mission Indians also opposes it, saying it would desecrate sacred ground.