Supervisor Urges Sole County Dump Agency : Environment: Maria VanderKolk wants to study hauling waste by rail as an alternative to a landfill in Weldon Canyon.

Ventura County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk unveiled a plan Monday to establish a single countywide agency to operate all county trash dumps and in the process put the county’s only private landfill operator out of business.

The plan is designed to eliminate overlapping authority among various county agencies that regulate recycling and landfills, VanderKolk said. It would also study the possibility of hauling trash by rail to an unspecified site in the east county, she said.

“I would like to see all the various agencies and expertise in the county be under one roof,” VanderKolk said. “This would be important because in my mind there is a lot of redundancy.”

But two of her colleagues on the Board of Supervisors criticized the proposal, saying residents can get better services by keeping the private sector involved in county waste disposal.

“It rules out the private sector,” said Supervisor John K. Flynn. “Today, more than ever, the government and private sector have to work together.”

Supervisor Maggie Erickson Kildee said a portion of VanderKolk’s plan sounds like a modified version of a proposal made last year by VanderKolk’s top aide, Russ Baggerly, a former environmental activist in the Ojai Valley.

Baggerly proposed hauling waste by rail to a landfill site near Piru as an alternative to opening a landfill in Weldon Canyon near his home in Meiners Oaks. Yet Baggerly said the proposal was the idea of his new boss, who took office in January. “I never pressed her to come up with this idea,” he said.

Flynn, who has proposed his own ideas for managing trash disposal, disapproves of hauling waste by rail. “It’s a pretty expensive proposition,” he said. “It’s the most expensive proposition on the table.”

Kildee said VanderKolk has a basically good idea of forming one county agency to make waste disposal policy. But, Kildee said, to avoid any conflicts of interest, she would like separate organizations--including private firms--to operate the county’s landfills.

“The policy-making organization and the operators should be separate,” she said.

In addressing the waste disposal issue, VanderKolk stepped into one of the most debated county issues: where to locate Ventura County’s next generation of landfills.

The question is the focus of a heated power struggle involving Ventura Regional Sanitation District, a public agency that operates Toland Road Landfill east of Santa Paula and Bailard Landfill near Oxnard, and Waste Management of North America Inc.

Waste Management, a subsidiary of a controversial waste disposal company based in Illinois, hopes to open a new landfill in Weldon Canyon near Ojai to replace Bailard, which is scheduled to close in 1993. VanderKolk said her plan would put Waste Management out of business in Ventura County.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider the Weldon Canyon project this fall.

VanderKolk said she will formally propose her plan next month to the Ventura County Solid Waste Commission, an advisory group that includes representatives from each city and the county.

Under her proposal, all county organizations dealing with waste disposal issues--such as the Solid Waste Commission and the county’s Solid Waste Management Department--would be unified under the control of the Ventura Regional Sanitation District.

VanderKolk’s plan would give the district a new name--the Ventura County Integrated Waste Management District--and expand its board of directors to include representatives from the county and each city.

Although VanderKolk’s proposal does not rule out private firms from operating county landfills, she said she would like public ownership and operation of all landfills in the county.

“Waste management is a public service and should stay a public service,” she said.

By studying plans to haul waste by rail, VanderKolk said the proposal would provide an alternative to the Weldon Canyon landfill. Baggerly’s idea was to haul waste by rail to one of several east county sites, including Hopper Canyon near Piru. VanderKolk has not identified a specific landfill in her proposal.

James Jevens, project manager for Waste Management, said he believes that residents will get better rates and services if private firms are allowed to operate some county landfills.

“A multitude of studies have shown what the public already knows: Private business is more responsive than the government,” he said.

Bill Chiat, resource planning and development manager of the Ventura Regional Sanitation District, said he applauds VanderKolk’s idea.

“We have a lot of excellent resources in the county and anything that uses the resources available would put us miles ahead,” he said.