New Times / News

SLO supes approve a bigger dump

BY NICK POWELL

A permit granting extensive expansion of South San Luis Obispo County’s only garbage disposal site was reaffirmed by the Board of Supervisors Nov. 20, but it wasn’t quite the permit that the owners Cold Canyon Landfill wanted.

Over the summer, the County Planning Commission met several times to discuss a project that would extend the life of the landfill through 2035 by adding 46 acres of usable land, building a second entry/weigh station, and increasing the daily allowable tonnage. The commission approved a permit on Aug. 9, but it included more than 100 conditions, some of which Cold Canyon managers saw as overly burdensome and expensive. They appealed the decision to the Board of Supervisors.

In a four-hour discussion, the supervisors and staff went through the landfill’s concerns one by one, ultimately deciding to consolidate some of the conditions and soften others, allowing workers to remove debris from nearby properties when owners complained instead of forcing them to patrol the surrounding area regularly, for example. The amendments to the permit were approved unanimously.