City Studies Plan for Using Simi Landfill

The Thousand Oaks City Council is set to decide Tuesday whether to delve further into possible endorsement of a plan to link the city with four others in a pact to dump their trash exclusively at the Simi Valley Landfill.

Thousand Oaks city staff members have recommended that the council vote to send Mayor Pro Tem Judy Lazar to the East County Waste Task Force on Wednesday with a list of the city’s concerns about the pact, and that Mayor Andy Fox take the same list Thursday to the Ventura County Council of Governments.

The agreement is meant to divert all trash from Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Camarillo and Ventura to the Simi Valley Landfill, in exchange for lower dumping rates and a longer life at the landfill.

Thousand Oaks Public Works Director Donald Nelson lists these among staff members’ concerns that Lazar and Fox should discuss:

A lack of the cities’ ability to end the agreement; the need for an environmental analysis of the proposal to extend the landfill’s closure date from 2004 to 2013; and the need for an alternate dump site in case Simi Valley Landfill closes temporarily or prematurely.

The concerns also include payment procedures among the cities, trash haulers and the landfill, and whether a joint-powers agreement is necessary to keep the arrangement working.

Moorpark and Simi Valley officials have already approved the pact in principle.

The other cities are still weighing the measure.