Oxnard Approves Recycling Plant : Trash: The city wants to cut its dependence on Bailard Landfill. Officials seek an agreement with the sanitation district.

The Oxnard City Council on Tuesday approved plans to build a regional trash-recycling plant in the city and invited other Ventura County cities to join in the project.

On a 4-0 vote, the council ordered city staff to seal an agreement with the Ventura Regional Sanitation District to build the plant so the city can cut its dependence on dwindling dump space at the Bailard Landfill. Councilman Mike Plisky, who was away on vacation Tuesday, has supported the plan in the past.

The $20-million facility and transfer station, scheduled to be operational by June, 1994, could sort recyclables from trash produced by Ventura County’s cities and prepare the remaining rubbish for transfer to another landfill, Councilwoman Dorothy Maron said.

“We will be able to close the Bailard Landfill at the earliest possible time, because we’ll have a transfer station,” Maron said at Tuesday’s council meeting in City Hall. “That will enable us to transfer trash to another landfill, including . . . Utah,” where city officials say landfill space is available.

“We’re saving Oxnard from getting into a very extreme situation,” said James Frandsen, public works director. “I think it’s a win-win situation for Oxnard. We hope the cities and the county will become part of this facility.”

In addition to reducing Oxnard’s dependence on the Bailard site, the plant would help the city meet state-mandated cuts in trash production. While Oxnard now recycles 6% of its trash, it must raise that amount to 25% by 1995 and 50% by the year 2000, according to state law.

City officials are expected to meet with the Ventura Regional Sanitation District board June 11 to begin drafting the plant-construction plans in the form of a legal document.

The agreement then could be returned to the City Council’s June 16 meeting for final approval if the district determines that there is no need for an environmental impact report, Frandsen said.

The agreement with the district will also relieve Oxnard of a huge financial burden, Maron said.

In exchange for taking the lead role in reducing Ventura County’s landfill use, Oxnard would no longer be alone in paying $15 million to clean up and monitor the Santa Clara Landfill over the next 22 years. The other seven cities of the district will share the burden of that site, which is now the city-owned River Ridge Golf Course.

Under the agreement, the city will supply staff to help planners design it and to find a private company to operate it once it is built. District officials have said the district will pay for construction of the plant with bonds, initially, and tipping fees charged later to the cities that dump there.

Some city and county officials have questioned whether the Oxnard plan will disrupt plans for a similar facility that the Ventura County Waste Commission is developing.

However, Maron said the Oxnard plan should be able to mesh with those plans, and the plant should be able to fill the needs they outline.

Mayor Nao Takasugi added, “I think it’s going to be a very open project, a very cooperative project. And any other agencies that wish to bring their resources in are welcome to join the program.”