Ventura Recycler Vows to Handle Load When Bailard Dump Closes : Trash: Gold Coast officials say expansion project will be completed in time. But a consultant has recommended an Oxnard facility.

Although it has yet to receive permits to expand, a Ventura trash firm assured west county officials Monday that it will be ready to handle much of the area’s waste by the time the Bailard Landfill in Oxnard closes next summer.

Officials of Gold Coast Recycling told members of the West Ventura County Waste Authority that a planned $2.4-million expansion of its recycling and trash transfer facility will be completed when Bailard closes. The facility would go from handling 440 tons of trash per day to 1,200 tons.

“We believe we can do it, and we’re ready to do it,” said Nan Drake, a spokeswoman for Gold Coast.

A consultant hired by the authority had recommended last week that its members send their trash on a short-term basis to the $25-million Del Norte Regional Recycling Center, now under construction in Oxnard. Authority members include Ventura, Santa Paula, Fillmore, Ojai and the county.

Although Del Norte’s rates would probably be $11 to $13 per ton higher than Gold Coast, the consultant said that the facility had already received its operating permits and would be ready when Bailard closes. It recommended against Gold Coast because it did not have its expansion permits, or even a detailed plan of its expansion project, which the company recently said would be substantially reduced in scope.

“We don’t feel they are a viable option,” said Scott Hobson of the Fremont-based consulting firm of Hilton Farnkopf & Hobson. “Their expansion plan is in the conceptual state. They have no specific proposal that they have submitted to the city.”

But Drake said that Gold Coast representatives have been meeting with Ventura officials to discuss the company’s expansion plans. She said that the company had already bought two properties next to its Colt Street facility and is confident that it will secure the necessary permits for its project, which should break ground in April.

Should Gold Coast’s expansion take longer than expected, Drake said it has a backup plan to haul more trash directly to the Simi Valley Landfill and the Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Los Angeles County until its expanded trash transfer facility is ready. At its transfer facility, trash gathered from Gold Coast’s customers would be placed in larger, less polluting trucks for shipping to area landfills.

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Meanwhile, Bernard Huberman, president of Los Angeles-based BLT Enterprises, which will operate the Oxnard recycling center once it opens, told waste authority members that work is already under way on the Del Norte facility and that it will be open in June.

Huberman also said that the Del Norte facility would be able to offer more competitive rates than those quoted in the consultant’s report. The Del Norte facility’s rates were listed as $48.60 per ton for transfer and disposal, and Gold Coast’s at $37.10.

Huberman said the rates are negotiable because they are based on one-year terms and do not take into consideration guaranteed tonnage or extended contract periods.

The consultant also named the Simi Valley Landfill as the cheapest place for either of the two recycling firms to send their remaining trash. The landfill’s proposed tipping fee, or dumping charge, is $24 per ton and was about $7 less than that of its closest competitor, Chiquita Canyon.

But like Huberman, representatives of Chiquita Canyon told the waste authority that its rates were rough estimates and not based on specific tonnage or extended contract periods. They said they would probably be able to negotiate a cheaper rate if they were given some guarantees about the volume of trash to be received.

During Monday’s meeting, Fillmore Councilman Roger Campbell, his city’s representative on the waste authority, suggested to his colleagues on the panel that they dissolve their joint partnership and negotiate individually with both Gold Coast and Del Norte.

But the waste authority rejected his proposal. Instead, the authority agreed to take the consultant’s information back to their individual cities for review. The panel scheduled another meeting for Nov. 20 to discuss further whether they will negotiate jointly or individually with the recycling firms.