CITY GETS MORE TIME TO COMPLY RECYCLING EXTENSION GRANTED.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - The city recycled just 42 percent of its waste in 2000, but will not be fined for failing to reduce trash by 50 percent, as mandated by state law, officials said.

The California Integrated Waste Management Board, the state's lead recycling agency, unanimously voted Tuesday to give Santa Clarita until December 2004 to meet the state law.

``This is really only a starting point,'' said Jason Smisko, interim environmental services manager. ``There is a lot of work yet to be done.''

State officials said Santa Clarita showed the six-member board that the city was committed to recycling by establishing new programs and correcting deficiencies.

``Santa Clarita is clearly trying to meet the 50 percent mandate, but has just fallen short,'' said board spokesman Lanny Clavecilla. ``We'll monitor their efforts to make sure they make significant progress in the years to come.''

Statewide, cities and counties also recycled an average of 42 percent of their waste in 2000, placing Santa Clarita in the middle of the pack, Clavecilla said.

Initially, the state calculated that Santa Clarita had recycled only 17 percent of its trash, prompting a political firestorm that led to the departure of former City Manager George Caravalho and bitterly divided the City Council.

After a year of intense debate, a split Santa Clarita City Council voted in March to toss out an already approved contract extension with Blue Barrel and the city's other hauler, Atlas/Consolidated Disposal Services, and solicit bids from other companies.

A city-funded study by SCS Engineers found that the state's initial determination was inaccurate because of the intense population growth and development spurt in Santa Clarita.

The board accepted the revised recycling rate Tuesday and agreed to use the city's study to calculate how much trash the city diverts from area landfills in the future. Data for 2001 and 2002 are not yet available, Smisko said.

``We're hopeful that we've already met and perhaps surpassed the 50 percent mark,'' Smisko said.

After the city recycled 50 percent of its waste in 1998, the rate dropped to 32 percent a year later, not only because of development and growth but because of reporting errors at Chiquita Canyon Landfill and by Santa Clarita/Blue Barrel Disposal Co., according to city officials.

``We feel like this process has cleaned up those problems and put us on the right track,'' Smisko said.

The City Council has directed the city staff to take a more active role in verifying the amount of trash recycled to prevent the problems at the landfill from recurring, and Blue Barrel General Manager Karl McCarthy has said his company has taken a number of steps to correct the mistakes.

``There are a lot of opportunities for us to increase the diversion rate,'' Smisko said.

The City Council has repeatedly said it wants to recycle 75 percent of the city's waste to help prevent new landfills from being built in the Santa Clarita Valley.

City officials are aware that they need to do a better job of recycling commercial waste, including development and construction trash hauled by independent companies. The city also intends to expand a single-stream recycling program citywide, Smisko said.

However, those improvements will unlikely be made until the City Council awards the trash-franchise agreement this spring and the current contracts expire in 2006, Smisko said.

Blue Barrel and Atlas are expected to vie for the city's trash franchise along with Browning Ferris Industries and Crown Disposal Co., which are both headquartered in the San Fernando Valley.

MAKING PROGRESS

Trash diversion rates in Santa Clarita

1995 28 percent

1996 42 percent

1997 50 percent

1998 51 percent

1999 32 percent

2000 42 percent

Source: California Integrated Waste Management Board

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MAKING PROGRESS (see text)