For more information Call + 619-200-4224
For more information Call + 619-200-4224
In two separate elections, San Diego voters overwhelming approved the siting of a solid waste landfill in North San Diego County. In 1994, Proposition C's voter initiative amended the County's General Plan to allow the development of the Gregory Canyon Landfill, and outlined the basic parameters for development. Proposition C passed by an overwhelming 68-32% margin.
Ten years later, in 2004, landfill opponents drafted and sponsored a second voter initiative, Proposition B, seeking to invalidate the 1994 initiative. The election process is mostly remarkable for the amount of money spent on a local initiative, approximately $6,000,000 by the landfill opponents! Despite that, Proposition B failed by an overwhelming 67-33% margin.
Due to the vast sums spent for this campaign, much can be learned because the electorate was so highly informed. The bottom line is that the residents and businesses in San Diego County, particularly the northern portion of the County, feel a genuine obligation and responsibility to safely manage the waste generated BY the County IN the County. They feel the need to do this locally rather than the typical NIMBY approach of "take it anywhere else." The voters were also convinced that, despite a great deal of misinformation, the Gregory Canyon Landfill site provides state of the art environmental controls that would be fully protective of the environment.
Analysis of our polling data demonstrated that opposition to Proposition B, and the support for the landfill, was not restricted to some small segment of the San Diego County electorate. Projected results from the survey research suggested that significant majorities of both men and women, voters of all ages, voters of all political parties, voters in each political jurisdiction within the County (including each Congressional district, State Senate district, and State Assembly district, except for Assembly District 66, where the proposed landfill is located), as well as voters in each region of the county and all major cities, intended to vote No on Proposition B, and that is precisely what occurred....click here to read more on the Proposition B Polling and Election Results.
Click to see a diagram of bottom liner system
Even though overwhelmingly approved by voters, the landfill has to go through the same environmental review and approval process that any other landfill is subject to (see attached schedule of permits). Over 15 years of extensive environmental review have produced the safest, most environmentally protective landfill ever built in California. The final EIR for the project was certified by the County Department of Environmental Health in February 2003, and has been updated in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. All legal challenges to the EIR filed by landfill opponents to date have been fully and finally resolved in favor of the project.
The 308-acre Gregory Canyon landfill project will be developed on 1,783 acres, adjacent to State Route 76, and about three miles east of Interstate 15. The project will not only be highly protective of water resources, but will be a showcase for efforts to protect and enhance several endangered species.
The highlight of the project is its 7 1/2 feet thick, double composite liner system. This is the first time this highly protective liner system is being used for a non-hazardous (municipal) waste landfill. The liner design greatly exceeds federal requirements for non-hazardous waste landfills and even meets federal requirements for hazardous waste landfills. The combination of flexible membrane liner material, geosynthetic liner material, clay liner, leachate collection, gas collection, secondary leachate and gas detection and collection, and a subdrain collection layer will provide unparalleled protection to water resources. With this combination of features, it is a virtual impossibility that landfill contaminants would ever reach the underlying fractured bedrock. The double composite liner is calculated to yield performance that is more than 1,000,000,000,000,000 times better than unlined conditions.
That is only the beginning. The landfill will include a monitoring network of approximately 25 wells that will be sampled and analyzed every quarter to detect the potential release of contaminants. Moreover, seven of these wells will be pumped continuously to provide an effective ground water barrier between the underlying fractured bedrock and the Pala alluvial basin, located about 1000 feet to the north. In addition, the project will include a dedicated water treatment system, ready at a moment's notice.
With all of these protections in place, the risk to ground water users in the Pala Basin and other downstream basins is simply non-existent. The claims by certain landfill opponents, that pollution will affect the drinking water supply as far downstream as Oceanside, are wildly exaggerated. Furthermore, even without these protections, the likelihood of flows from the fractured bedrock producing measurable contamination in the Pala alluvial basin is highly unlikely, as confirmed by Dr. David Huntley, Professor Emeritus at San Diego State University.
Even so, as a final and ultimate protection, the project has committed to obtain a $100,000,000 environmental liability insurance policy to address any off-site impacts from the landfill.
Recently, regulatory agencies are paying greater attention to potential impacts from storm water runoff to lakes and streams. Once again, the Gregory Canyon Landfill project is at the forefront of environmental protection. The project is designed with a unique dual drainage system, which will keep unpolluted flows from natural areas completely separate from flow in developed areas that contain sediment. The flows from developed areas are then treated to remove sediment. The storm water drainage controls also include a series of mechanical treatment units, bio-swales and percolation areas that, working together, minimize pollutant discharges and regulate flows into the San Luis Rey River to levels consistent with the natural, pre-development condition.
Biological Resources
Protection of threatened and endangered species has always been a predominant feature of the Gregory Canyon project. The 1994 Proposition C provided that at least 1,313 acres at the Gregory Canyon site would be dedicated as permanent open space. But that is only the beginning. The project will also be creating or enhancing approximately 230 acres of the open space area, to restore the area in the San Luis Rey River corridor from its current degraded condition, from decades of dairy farming and grazing, to prime quality riparian habitat for the southwestern arroyo toad, least Bell's vireo and southwestern willow flycatcher. The habitat restoration area will become an important part of San Diego County's long term plan to assure the viability of these species. In addition, the restoration area could provide an important future linkage to the County's planned habitat/recreational corridor along the San Luis Rey River.
Vegetation communities affected by the landfill development that serve as habitat for these endangered species will be mitigated at multiples of 2:1 to 4:1.
Cultural Resources
The religious beliefs of the Luiseno people, which include a number of Tribes in San Diego County, include a deity known as Taakwic. Taakwic's home is in Riverside County, but it has been reported that he has appeared at a substantial number of locations in San Diego County. One (of many) of those is Gregory Mountain, located to the east of the landfill. It has been reported that Taakwic alighted at the top of Gregory Mountain, and looked to the east, away from the landfill and toward the nearby Pala Reservation.
The project has acknowledged the importance of these resources to native peoples. The EIR included a detailed analysis of potential impacts from the project. The EIR concluded that there were no objectively verifiable impacts on Native American cultural resources. There are no physical archaeological resources of significe on the project site or at the top of Gregory Mountain, and no documented use of the top of Gregory Mountain for religious ceremonies for at least the past seventy years. Landfill opponents, who include local tribes, did not contest that conclusion.
Gregory Canyon respects the beliefs of Native American peoples, and the project has incorporated a variety of features to protect these cultural resources, even though they are subjective and cannot be verified. First and foremost, the project will not affect the top of Gregory Mountain, where Taakwic has been reported to visit, the top 1/3 of its western flank, and none of its eastern flank. In fact, the top of Gregory Mountain and the top 1/3 of its western flank have been included in the permanent open space and will never be disturbed. No aspect of the project affects the view shed of Taakwic, to the east toward the Pala Reservation. The project has committed funds to build a trail from the Pala Reservation to the top of Gregory Mountain, to allow access for religious ceremonies for the first time in nearly a century. Finally, the project incorporates the use of a Native American monitor to observe project development and avoid impacts to any newly discovered physical resources. In light of all of these protections, the claims by some landfill opponents that the project would literally tear apart the "universe" and destroy the Luiseno religious heritage appear exaggerated.
Air, Fossil Fuel, and Greenhouse Gases
Due to Gregory Canyon Landfill's location, close to North County cities and unincorporated areas, the project has some significant environmental advantages. Currently, waste from these areas is being trucked all the way to South San Diego County, and in some instances even out of County. A study found that with the Gregory Canyon Landfill available as a close-in, cost-effective disposal option, the vehicle miles traveled in San Diego County to dispose of waste could be reduced by up to 1,000,000 miles each year! This would help relieve traffic congestion on area freeways, reduce the use of precious fossil fuels, and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. In addition, the project's advanced liner system provides the technology supporting increased capture and control of methane (also a greenhouse gas)generated from waste decomposition than can't be accomplished at existing landfills in San Diego County.
Myth: The Gregory Canyon landfill lies on top of an important source of drinking water
Fact: The boundary of the Pala Basin Aquifer lies north of the footprint of the Gregory Canyon landfill, and is not threatened by the proposed landfill.
Details: The liner system has been designed with significant redundancies to protect groundwater from being polluted by the landfill. We not only have this redundant liner system, but we have included monitoring points within the liner system to detect a release before it leaves the landfill and a line of wells at the down gradient edge of the landfill along the path that a contaminant might take if it were to exit the landfill. If a contaminant were detected at any point, we would be able to act quickly either with the on-site treatment system or other measures to deal with the release before it migrated any distance from the landfill. The Gregory Canyon Landfill poses no threat to area drinking water sources.
Myth: San Diego has adequate waste disposal capacity to meet waste generation for the foreseeable future, and our successful recycling program has eliminated the need for the Gregory Canyon Landfill.
Fact: County waste generation totals have continued to grow along with population growth since 1994 despite our County's successful recycling program. Without Gregory Canyon, the 15-year disposal capacity requirement mandated by the County's Solid Waste Disposal Plan cannot be met using in-County facilities. San Diego County's Solid Waste Plan relies on the Gregory Canyon Landfill and the planned expansion of existing landfills to meet the County's solid waste disposal needs over the next 30 years. San Diego County currently generates more than 3.3 million tons of trash each year. Over 1,500 tons of garbage is collected daily in North San Diego County alone, with no local North County landfill to meet this need since the closure of the San Marcos landfill in 1997. The Gregory Canyon landfill would be able to accommodate 1 million tons of solid waste per year for 30 years. If the Gregory Canyon site is eliminated, there is no other landfill project on the horizon to address the waste disposal needs of San Diego County.
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Click Here to see the image of the proposed Landfill.
Click Here to download the Gregory Canyon Landfill Presentation.
Click Here to see the Proposed Floor Liner System Detail.
The ramifications of stopping the Gregory Canyon landfill project are numerous:
In 1994, Proposition C was approved by 68% of voters countywide. It amended the county's General Plan to designate North County's Gregory Canyon for a landfill and recycling center. In approving this measure, county voters rejected inaccurate arguments by representatives of the Pala tribe and other landfill opponents who claimed erroneously that the landfill would pollute ground water resources and the San Luis Rey River, and that it would impact sacred Indian sites.
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors identified Gregory Canyon as a potential site for a new North County landfill in 1991. It was one of 8 sites considered as a replacement for the San Marcos landfill, North County's only landfill, which reached capacity and closed in 1997. The 308-acre Gregory Canyon landfill will be developed on 1,770 acres, adjacent to State Route 76, and about three miles east of Interstate 15. An additional 1,300 acres at the Gregory Canyon site will be dedicated as permanent open space, which will become part of the county's Multiple Species Conservation Program.
San Diego County's Integrated Waste Plan - Siting Element relies on the Gregory Canyon Landfill to meet the County's solid waste disposal needs for at least the next 30 years.
The need for additional disposal capacity can clearly be seen from a review of long-term disposal trends in the County. In 1994, when Proposition C was passed, North San Diego County produced about 500,000 tons of trash each year. By 2008, and despite the significant increase in waste diversion, this area produced about 1,000,000 tons of trash each year. This area alone would completely utilize the permitted capacity of the project, which is 1,000,000 tons per year.
While disposal volumes have been reduced over the past several years due to the downturn in economic activity, the long-term trend is increasing volumes for disposal, the result of population and business growth. Increased waste diversion has not kept pace with this increased demand, and is not expected to do so the in the future.
The Gregory Canyon Landfill also provides competition for disposal services, which can help keep costs to residents and businesses on check. Without Gregory Canyon, all of the other privately-owned landfill currently operating in San Diego County would be controlled by one company. This creates a significant danger of arbitrarily substantial price increases.
After county voters approved Proposition C in 1994, the landfill was subjected to 10 years of environmental review by the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health, which recently certified the project's Environmental Impact Report (EIR). Gregory Canyon will be the safest, most environmentally protected landfill in California. The landfill's liner system provides for over 7.5 feet of materials designed to prevent any leakage or contamination of surrounding water tables. The liner system is also designed to detect any leakage if it should occur, and an on-site water treatment facility will be at hand to treat any contaminated water. In order to begin construction, the landfill will also have to be approved by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board.
The Gregory Canyon landfill will provide an unprecedented level of protection to the water quality in the region. The liner system would be the only 5-layer, double composite system in any California solid waste landfill. In addition, there will be a system dedicated to the collection and containment of landfill liquids, a two-phase surface water control system, and two early detection systems. Finally, the redundant protective system will include a dedicated groundwater treatment plant, thus adding a final level of protection to preserving the quality of the water in the surrounding area.
The Pala Band of Mission Indians has opposed the Gregory Canyon Landfill since it was first identified by San Diego County as a potential site in the late 1980s. Funded primarily from gambling profits derived from their casino located at the foot of Gregory Mountain, the Pala Casino has attempted through lawsuits, campaign contributions and Sacramento lobbying to block the landfill. When these efforts failed, their attorneys drafted a ballot measure and paid signature gatherers were hired in an attempt to qualify the measure for the ballot. The Pala Casino's political consultant has said they are prepared to spend $2.5 million to secure voter approval for their initiative.
The casino and proposed landfill would utilize the same two-lane highway - State Route 76 - to access their respective sites. The landfill has agreed to pay for road improvements, including turn lanes and widening, to accommodate the additional traffic the project will generate. But the Pala Casino has thus far been unwilling to pay for needed improvements to SR 76 to accommodate casino traffic, which constitutes over 90% of the projected vehicle trips on the road. The casino's tenant, an aggregate quarrying company, generates the majority of the existing truck traffic on SR 76.