$100 million landfill project begins By JONATHAN ATHENS, Staff Writer
Friday, April 27, 2007 10:39 PM PDT
SANITATION DISTRICTS PHOTO
Representatives from the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County join Imperial County officials in breaking ground Friday for the Mesquite Regional Landfill, five miles east of Glamis. The 11 Sanitation Districts board members who participated included seven Los Angeles area mayors or former mayors and four Los Angeles-area city council members.
GLAMIS A Friday morning groundbreaking ceremony near the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area marked a major milestone for Imperial County’s growth.
About 75 public and private stakeholders from the region gathered along an arid tract of land five miles east of Glamis, where the $100 million Mesquite Regional Landfill will be built.
The landfill, to be finished in 2009, will be the first of its kind in Southern California to get its waste by rail.
The Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles, which will operate the landfill, touted the landfill’s state-of-the-art technology, saying it will create more than 250 new jobs, produce electricity for the Imperial Irrigation District and generate more than $17 million annually in fees for the county.
“This is a great economic benefit for our county,” said Gary Wyatt, Imperial County District 4 supervisor.
The landfill is expected to last 100 years and will receive from rail about 20,000 tons per day of solid waste. Using technology to capture methane gas, the landfill will also generate electricity. Dirt from the nearby Western Goldfields Mesquite Mine will be used to cover the landfill, eliminating odors and preventing carrion from descending on the area.
The Friday ceremony marked the culmination of 26 years of planning and clearing environmental hurdles.
“Imperial County has a future in recycling and the energy business but it does require a can-do attitude and looking to the future,” said Larry Grogan, Imperial County Board of Supervisors chairman.
Environmentalists during the public hearing process for permits years ago raised their concerns about waste being hauled by rail and possible threats the landfill could pose to the desert tortoise, a threatened species.
“I think this is a pretty balanced project” when it comes to protecting the environment and handling solid waste, said Steve Maguin, general manager.
The technology that will be used at the Mesquite site is the same as what is being used at the Puente Hills landfill in Whittier, which is slated to be closed in eight years when it reaches capacity.
Convincing Imperial County officials to allow the landfill to be built wasn’t a hard sell, LaVerne Mayor Jon Blickenstaff said.
“The sanitation district has a reputation for being very sensitive environmentally in this case, step by step, everybody was doing the right thing,” Blickenstaff said.
He and Maguin said they think similar such electricity-producing landfills will catch on elsewhere in the nation.
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