Foe Questions County Work at Dump

San Diego County officials may be violating a Superior Court order as work quietly began this week to excavate and deliver clay to the San Marcos landfill, a lawyer opposed to the landfill’s expansion said Thursday.

Attorney Michael Hogan said he was “absolutely astounded that the county would so brazenly violate” an order by San Diego Superior Court Judge Judith McConnell, who two weeks ago told the county to take no actions at the landfill site that would affect the environment until she approves an environmental impact report on the dump’s expansion.

On Monday, a neighboring property owner, under contract with the county, began work to excavate 440,000 tons of clay for sale to the county. A cross-country road has already been cut from that property to the landfill site so that up to 300 trucks a day can deliver the clay to the dump.

County officials Thursday said the clay will be used to either top off the landfill so it can be closed altogether, or to separate the existing dump from a second layer of trash if the expansion is allowed.

The property owner providing the clay is San Elijo Ranch Inc., which ultimately wants to develop a 2,000-acre residential and golf resort complex near the junction of Elfin Forest and Questhaven roads in southern San Marcos.

San Elijo Ranch project manager Kevin Darnall said the company wants to get rid of the clay anyway because it is inappropriate material for the building site. He said the company was more than happy to respond to a county request two months ago for bids for the purchase and delivery of clay.

Because the San Elijo Ranch property virtually abuts the northeastern edge of the landfill, costs of transporting the clay are minimal. The company was able to offer the county the best deal: about $1.7 million for 440,000 tons of the dirt.

The contract was awarded July 23, and work began Monday to grade a road from the site to the landfill and to clear part of a 40-acre excavation site so the clay can be dug up, Darnall said.

San Elijo Ranch has already produced a valid environmental impact report on its project, which includes a discussion of the clay removal, something the developer would have done even if the county didn’t want the clay for itself.

But one of the legal snags with the county is that its own EIR on the landfill expansion failed to take into account the environmental consequences of delivering clay to the landfill site.

Lari Sheehan, a deputy chief administrative officer for the county, said Thursday that as the clay is dug, it will be stockpiled on the county land until the county is either allowed to expand the dump or forced to close it.

In either event, Sheehan said, clay is needed as a top layer for the existing dump, and piling it up alongside the dump is not in violation of the court’s ruling because, if the expansion is not allowed, the clay will be used anyway.

“The clay removal already has been discussed in the San Elijo project EIR, and our defense (in stockpiling it on the county land) is that we have to use the clay even if the landfill isn’t expanded, to protect the environment,” she said.

Hogan, the attorney for Christward Ministry, which successfully contested the county’s EIR on the landfill expansion, said he doesn’t share Sheehan’s viewpoint.

“The county’s arrogance is that they’re grading access roads and preparing to stockpile clay--things that affect the environment--despite Judge McConnell’s ruling,” Hogan said. “We’re investigating this, and if we think the county has violated the court order, we’ll go into court and seek a contempt order for the county’s willfully disobeying the court.”