First Trucked-In Trash Arrives at Prima Deshecha

For nearly 2,000 residents along Ortega Highway, the long-dreaded procession of trash trucks from San Diego County arrived this week, rumbling past their homes to the Prima Deshecha landfill.

The trucks are expected to bring Orange County about $15 million in dumping fees this year to help with the bankruptcy recovery. But for homeowners along the 4-mile stretch of Ortega Highway from Interstate 5 to the county-owned landfill, the trucks also are expected to increase noise and traffic.

“The bottom line was money,” said resident Barbara Rosenbaum. “We’ve been sold out and asked to carry all the impacts.”

But city officials say San Juan Capistrano will get a percentage of the revenue from imported trash, about 81 cents per ton, and will use that money to address residents’ concerns. If the maximum daily amount of imported trash allowed at the site--about 4,200 tons--is reached, the city would also get about $400,000 annually.

“Our City Council was quite adamant about spending the revenue on alleviating the impacts” of truck traffic, said City Administrator Douglas Dumhart. “We’ll be looking at many ways to deal with the situation.”

Possible mitigation measures include hiring additional police units to patrol Ortega Highway, road improvements and a new sound wall. A consultant hired by the city to gauge the effects of the additional truck traffic will meet with residents Thursday at City Hall.

In return for a promise not to sue the county, San Juan Capistrano also received assurances that Antonio Parkway, a vital north-south commuter street, will be extended to Ortega Highway by 1999, about 15 years ahead of schedule, Dumhart said.

This will relieve Ortega Highway, which is is used by commuters from Lake Elsinore, he said.

But Rosenbaum said connecting Antonio Parkway with Ortega Highway will bring far more traffic to her neighborhood, once planned communities like the 7,800-home Ladera project gets underway in the next several years.

“They are opening the door to even worse traffic,” she said. “I’m very disillusioned with the county and our City Council.”

The county’s contracts with three trash haulers until now allowed them to use two Orange County dumps--but not Prima Deshecha, because the county did not have San Juan Capistrano’s approval. With the city’s OK, the haulers can now use all three sites. The 5- to 10-year contracts brought in about $7 million last year and will reach their maximum annual payout of $15 million this year.

“When the county declared bankruptcy, we looked at avenues to raise money,” said Sue Gordon, spokeswoman for the county’s Integrated Waste Management Department. “If we were going to add [revenue] to the bankruptcy, we had to bring in waste from out of the county.”

On the first day the Prima Deshecha contract, went into effect, about 41 trucks carrying 700 tons of trash from outside the county used the landfill. While Gordon said trash officials don’t know if the maximum will ever be reached, residents fear the worst.

“This is going to add a lot of traffic and make it much tougher to make a left turn onto Ortega Highway,” said Denise Haddad, who has lived in San Juan Capistrano since 1978. “I’m bummed.”