Buena Vista Landfill To Close Sundays Beginning July 1

The Buena Vista Landfill will close on Sundays beginning July 1 under a current proposal by the county Public Works Department unveiled for the first time publicly at Wednesday's County Board of Supervisors meeting. Public Works Director John Presleigh said the schedule change will save the county $300,000 in the fiscal year 2011-12.

“This is the first I have heard about closing the Buena Vista Landfill on Sundays,” said County Supervisor Ellen Pirie. “And that is going to be a huge problem, because people are going to go to the dump whether it's open or not. And they are going to leave their stuff whether it's open or not.”

She hopes the move will only be temporary, and plans to open on Sundays as soon as revenues improve. However, the state's elimination of county redevelopment agency funds drained more than $12 million from the public works budget for fiscal year 2011-12, causing them to scramble to patch their shredded budget back together.

The board is concerned about the impacts of being closed on a day they feel it is common for county residents to clean their house and clear out junk from the yard. They believe the closure will lead to an increase in illegal dumping in south county. The Davenport Landfill as well as the Ben Lomond Transfer Center are already closed on Sundays, leaving county residents no place to dump loads on Sundays.

Presleigh said he is open to alternating closures of Ben Lomond and Buena Vista on Saturdays and Sundays, but chose to cancel service on Sundays to be consistent. Along with the other supervisors, he plans to vote on the closure at a meeting next week.

There are closed circuit television cameras at the entrance to both landfills, but Don Hill of Public Works said there is “no one on duty watching them 24 hours a day.” Instead, they will continue their practice of reviewing footage the day after a crime is committed. Pirie was not convinced that policing this crime is feasible.

“We are going to have trash all up and down Buena Vista Road,” said Pirie. “Your staff is going to have to be out their picking it up on Monday, and taking it into the landfill. And I wonder whether we or going to save any money doing that.”

Presleigh said the schedule change is also necessary as fees at the gate have sunk 35 percent over the last five years. Pirie then questioned if Sunday is the slowest day of the week in the interest of reducing further impacts on gate revenues. The board approved of the proposal as an interim measure, but want public works to at least consider closing on another day to avoid further damge to revenues, and give county residents at least one location to dispose of extra trash.

“It's one of the slowest days...Mondays are also slow, and sometimes Fridays,” he said. "We just don't have the revenue to [remain open] on Sundays...We like being open on Sundays."

Don Hill of Public Works told Patch that no environmental impact report was done to investigate possible effects on the area due to no dumps in the county accepting trash for one day a week, calling it "strictly a budget decision."