City Considers Major Tajiguas Landfill Deal, Warts and All

Given little choice and no real alternatives, the Santa Barbara City Council is poised to hold its nose and jump on board the $122 million project to extend the life of the Tajiguas Landfill before it reaches maximum capacity.

“I don’t know how to get out of this box,” said Councilmember Gregg Hart last Tuesday about what he called the “unacceptable” reality of relying on a dump sited in a canyon along the otherwise unspoiled Gaviota Coast. “But I’m not seeing a clear path to better solution today,” he said. “I see it in the future, but not today.”

For the county, which owns and operates the landfill, to proceed with its Tajiguas Resource Recovery Project (RRP) it needs a 20-year, $9-million-a-year commitment from the city in the form of 75,000 tons of trash delivered annually. That represents around 40 percent of the waste that would flow through the proposed facility, designed to sort out salable recyclables and convert green waste into biogas and electricity. The rest will come from Goleta, Buellton, and the unincorporated parts of the county. City staff has estimated the RRP will keep as much as 65 percent of Santa Barbara’s trash from being packed into the landfill. Right now, 39 percent is diverted.