Time to Deal With Trash : North County needs to end fight, select landfill site

North County is in for another round of NIMBYism, if the past is any indicator. What people don’t want in their back yards this time is the same thing that North Countians have been trying to keep out of their back yards for years: waste.

The region’s only landfill will be full in a few weeks, but the county is still years away from opening a new one. Mention trash in North County and people’s eyes either glaze over or they glare.

What’s about to stir up the next round of opposition is the recently released ranking of 16 potential landfill sites. The four locations considered environmentally safest are all within sight of residential areas.

NIMBYism, of course, is not the only factor that has delayed the siting of a new landfill. A thorough review process, necessary to protect the environment--especially water quality--is lengthy. Two sites suggested earlier are working their way through that process now, as is an application for a permit to expand the existing landfill. Perhaps equally vexing has been the slow response by county government and several boards of supervisors in dealing with the overall trash issue. But NIMBYism has significantly hampered consideration of many sites and solutions. Opposition by several North County cities was instrumental in killing a workable proposal for a trash-to-energy plant, and it has contributed to the delay of a huge recycling plant, which has now been funded and partially approved but not built.

While each community has a right to voice its concerns and those concerns need to be taken into account, what has been missing from the debate is reasoned comment from leaders in these communities. Someone has to put the common welfare first.

Public policy-makers and regulators must protect public health and safety and make sure the projects are financially feasible. And property owners who will be significantly harmed must be compensated. But politics and aesthetics can’t be allowed to derail reasonable sites.