January 25, 2024
BY TAMMY MURGA REPORTER
More than a decade ago, San Diego County voters agreed that a new landfill and recycling center should be built in East Otay Mesa because disposal capacity was then-presumed to be exhausted by 2030.
But it appears the region is not headed in that direction. A 2022 county waste management plan, the latest published, indicates that existing landfills will have “an overall capacity estimated to last through 2053,” and that waste-reduction efforts will further decrease the amount of trash sent to landfills.
So, the yearslong proposal is not needed and it would further exacerbate the Tijuana sewage crisis. That’s what a group of environmentalists, elected officials and community leaders argued Wednesday.
“A solid waste landfill in East Otay Mesa will only bring more harm to the environment and even more injustices to our border communities, already impacted by all sorts of pollution,” Nora Vargas, chairperson of the county Board of Supervisors, said from the steps of the County Administration Center during a news conference. “So let me be clear, we do not need another environmental burden in our communities, we do not need another landfill.”
She was accompanied by Lisa Ross, chairperson of the Sierra Club San Diego; Matthew Leyba-Gonzalez, Imperial Beach City Council member; Brigette Browning, president of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council; and Mark Gracyk with San Diego Democrats for Environmental Action.
Developer National Enterprises, a San Diego-based real estate development and investment company, is apparently moving forward with the project. An environmental impact report is currently being prepared to ensure the project is compliant with the California Environmental Quality Act.
Company CEO and President David Wick did not respond to requests for comment.
The developer plans to build a 340-acre landfill and recycling center on a 450-acre site, which is located two miles east of the Siempre Viva Road exit off state Route 905, near the Richard J. Donovan Prison and the George F. Bailey Detention Facility. It is about one-quarter mile from the U.S.-Mexico border and falls within the Tijuana River watershed. Approximately 110 acres of the site would remain undeveloped.
Voters approved the project in 2010 via Proposition A, which amended the county’s general plan and zoning regulations so that the landfill would not require a major-use permit. The project would, however, require approval from state and federal agencies.
In a 2010 interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune, Wick said the permit process could take a decade or more.
“We still have a long road in front of us,” he said then. “This is the first step for a very long, costly process.”
He also has said the site would make it difficult for contaminants to spread.
But environmentalists say the project could impact South County communities that are affected by Tijuana sewage that makes its way into the San Diego region via the Tijuana River.
The project falls in the Tijuana River Watershed, which covers 1,750 square miles and begins in the mountains near Mount Laguna. Water then flows into Baja California before returning to San Diego and to the Pacific Ocean, just south of Imperial Beach.
“It’s bad for our beaches, bad for our environment, and worse, it’s bad for working families,” Browning said of the project.
In the 1990s, county staff had considered placing a landfill in East Otay Mesa but that plan was abandoned after county voters approved Gregory Canyon in North County as a landfill site. The Gregory Canyon landfill project was scrapped in 2016 after part of the land had been sold.
The need for another landfill in the county has been debated over the past several years amid local and state policies to increase recycling and reduce the amount of waste taken to landfills.
San Diego County has three main landfills: Miramar, Otay and Sycamore. Under state law, the county determines every five years if the region has at least 15 years of landfill capacity. At least two past reports have concluded that enough capacity remains.
Once the draft environmental impact report is prepared, it will be released for public feedback for 45 days and then a final version will be produced. The project also will need to comply with requirements of the national Environmental Protection Act.