Send Waste to Oxnard Facility After Bailard Closes, Report Suggests : Services: Consultant recommends that members of the West Ventura County Solid Waste Authority negotiate with Del Norte recycling plant operator.

Once Bailard Landfill in Oxnard closes next year, cities in the western end of Ventura should send their waste to a $25-million rubbish and recycling center being built by the city of Oxnard, a consultant’s report has recommended.

The report released Tuesday recommends that members of the West Ventura County Solid Waste Authority negotiate the best possible price with the operator of the Del Norte recycling plant, BLT Enterprises. Members of the authority include Fillmore, Santa Paula, Ojai, Ventura and the county.

Scott Hobson, whose Fremont consulting firm was paid $22,000 by the authority for its report, said that the Del Norte facility would probably charge considerably higher rates than an existing facility in Ventura run by Gold Coast Recycling, which is in the process of expanding its operations.

But Hobson said the Del Norte recycling center already has the operating permits for its facility and expects to be up and running by next summer, when Bailard is scheduled to close. He said the Gold Coast facility does not yet have the permits needed to grow and that the company is not likely to have its $2.4-million expansion complete in time.

Hobson suggested that the waste authority contract with the Del Norte facility on a short-term basis. This way, he said, when the Gold Coast facility opens, the authority or its individual members can consider switching.

But Gold Coast spokeswoman Nan Drake said her company fully expects to be finished with the project in time for Bailard’s closing. The expansion would allow Gold Coast to nearly triple it capacity, from accepting 440 tons of trash per day to 1,200 tons.

Drake said that Gold Coast not only would provide cheaper rates but has an added advantage because it already accepts trash from most members of the west county waste authority.

“We feel confident we’re the common-sense solution,” she said.

Hobson’s report said that after all recyclables had been collected by either BLT or Gold Coast that the remaining trash would be sent to either the Simi Valley Landfill or Chiquita Landfill in Los Angeles County. The report said that sending trash to the Simi Valley Landfill would cost about $7 less per ton than the Los Angeles site.

In the case of Fillmore and Santa Paula, however, Hobson said it would be more economical for them to continue to send some of their trash to Chiquita because of their proximity to the dump near Santa Clarita.

Hobson also said that while BLT’s scheduled transportationrates are approximately $2 higher per ton than those of Gold Coast, the authority might be able to negotiate a lower rate by working out a contract for a longer specified period of time.

Representatives of the waste authority said Tuesday that they could not comment on the consultant’s report because they have not yet seen it. The consultant is expected to make a formal presentation to the waste authority on Monday.