Farming, Commercial Areas Preferred Over Research Site : City Tries to Reroute Hazardous-Waste Incinerators

The San Diego City Council, acting just five days before a crucial court hearing on a private firm’s proposal to open a hazardous-waste incinerator in a La Jolla research park, passed an emergency ordinance Wednesday designed to steer such facilities into the city’s agricultural and manufacturing areas.

The new regulations could apply to Ogden Environmental Services’ bid to fire up its experimental incinerator in the GA Technologies plant on Torrey Pines Mesa if the council’s June 13 rejection of the incinerator plan is upheld by a U.S. District Court judge at a hearing Monday.

The new regulations would force Ogden to find a new site for the incinerator outside the La Jolla “scientific research zone,” a process that would mean years of costly delays for the firm while state and federal agencies reviewed the safety of a new site.

“If the ultimate decision of the City Council to deny the permit is upheld as a valid land-use decision by the court, ipso facto, they are back to square 1,” said Deputy City Atty. Leslie Girard, who will represent the city Monday.

A Hasty Response

But Ogden attorney David Mulliken called Wednesday’s 6-1 council vote a hasty response to his accusation that the city effectively banned the firm’s incinerator by ordering it placed in the scientific research zone, then twice denying it the permits needed to operate there.

“This is an after-the-fact effort to cover their behinds,” Mulliken said. “This is a ruse. It’s an after-the-fact effort to cover up the fact that they changed the rules on us.”

For applicants who follow Ogden, the emergency ordinance is a response to Judge Judith Keep’s order that the city allow such hazardous-waste facilities somewhere in the city, said Assistant City Atty. Curtis Fitzpatrick.

As part of Wednesday’s vote, the council agreed to consider a non-emergency ordinance applying the same regulations to hazardous-waste facilities. The council’s Transportation and Land Use Committee will begin discussion of that ordinance Monday.

Ogden has received approval from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Health Services for its proposal to burn hazardous wastes on as many as 365 calendar days over a five-year period.

Demonstration Projects

The experimental facility is part of a federally sponsored effort to encourage innovative demonstration projects across the United States aimed at finding ways to safely dispose of hazardous waste.

Worried about burning hazardous waste in a site that is near the UC San Diego campus, three hospitals, a child care center and residential tracts, the council on Dec. 8 rejected Ogden’s bid for a permit to operate the plant. Ogden filed suit, and, in a May 11 decision, Keep said the council may not deny the firm the right to operate the incinerator on environmental grounds.

The council turned down the incinerator again June 13, this time citing its authority over land-use decisions. Ogden quickly went back to court and won the hearing scheduled for Monday before Keep.

District 7 Councilwoman Judy McCarty on Wednesday continued her practice of dissenting from the council vote on the Ogden matter, saying that the state and federal examinations of the incinerator have convinced her it is safe.