Governor Mulls Dump

A dream bouquet — the Requiem for a Dump award — to Gov. Jerry Brown for signing SB 833 and putting a stake in the heart of the North County landfill from hell.

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.