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County to Accelerate San Marcos Landfill Restoration

Posted on: Thursday, 28 July 2005, 18:00 CDT

Jul. 28--SAN DIEGO -- San Marcos residents can expect to see plants topping the old county landfill and fewer dirt trucks on the roads near San Elijo Hills this fall as the result of a decision Wednesday by the county Board of Supervisors to accelerate improvements at the dump site.

Without any discussion, the board unanimously agreed to spend as much as $350,000 more on a project designed to make the mountain of trash blend into the surrounding scenery of southwest San Marcos.

The extra money, which the county had set aside to cover increases in work-related costs at the site, will allow contractors to finish hauling more than 700,000 tons of dirt to the 100-acre site by the end of October instead of January, said Ramin Abidi, the county's construction engineering manager.

He said that once the dirt is in place, crews can begin planting coastal sage scrub, chaparral and oak trees on the dirt slope that rises roughly 200 feet in the air above San Elijo Road.

Heavy winter rains set the project, which began in September, behind by about three months, Abidi said.

The best way to restore the county dump site, which closed in 1997, was long a point of contention between San Marcos and the county, and officials from both sides said they would be pleased when the project is concluded.

"I think the sooner we get our job done and get out of there, the better it will be for everyone," county Supervisor Bill Horn said after the meeting.

When the county finishes bringing in the necessary dirt, it will mean a lot fewer trucks on local roadways and fewer delays for drivers.

The project calls for between 5 and 8 feet of dirt to sit on top of the millions of tons of trash, and the cap will consist of a mixture of decomposed granite and clay designed to act as a sponge and prevent water from reaching the trash.

But to get all the needed soil to the site by October, the number of truckloads of dirt delivered each day to the site increased from about 85 to 140 in April, said Roy Bartlett, the project manager for FCI Constructors Inc., which has the job's $14.3 million construction contract with the county.

Bartlett said a truck comes to the site on average about every four minutes during an eight-hour work day, and crews must briefly stop traffic on San Elijo Road each time a truck leaves the landfill for safety purposes.

The road is the only access for about 2,000 homes in San Elijo Hills, and residents said it will be nice to see fewer trucks on the road sooner rather than later.

"I would rather tolerate an increase in the number of trucks for a shorter period of time rather than wait for January," said Randy Walton, who lives in San Elijo Hills. "It's pretty much guaranteed that if you drive up to San Elijo Hills during the day you will see more than one truck."

But Walton said there are so many construction projects going on around the area it is hard to tell where the hauling trucks are headed, and the large barren slope covering the landfill doesn't really stand out among all of the graded areas set for new homes.

He also said many of the residents in San Elijo Hills are not familiar with the history of the landfill, which opened in 1978, because it closed before any of their homes were built.

Construction on the roughly 3,400-home San Elijo Hills development started in the late 1990s.

"We are used to seeing construction all of the time in San Elijo Hills, and it just blends into the environment now," Walton said. "But I really look forward to when they replant it and give it a more natural look."

The county expects Valley Crest Landscape Development of San Diego to begin bringing plants to the site in October and finish the work by the start of the rainy season in February, Abidi said. He said the county has a $2 million contract with Valley Crest that includes the initial planting and three years of maintenance for the drought-resistant plants.

The plants on the site will include eight different species of coastal sage scrub, six species of chaparral, oak trees, and acorn trees, Abidi said.

If these landscaping plans are executed, the plants should effectively disguise the area's messy past, said Assistant City Manager Paul Malone.

"The sooner they finish importing the dirt, the sooner they can begin planting," Malone said. "And the plants will help take the sting off what is a very large artificial, barren landform today."

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Source: North County Times

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