Gregory Canyon dealt blow in court

By: TOM PFINGSTEN - Staff Writer | Tuesday, October 4, 2005 10:50 PM PDT ∞

FALLBROOK ---- A Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that there are serious flaws in the environmental impact report for the planned Gregory Canyon landfill, a finding that could further delay construction of the $60 million dump ---- or halt the project altogether.

Opponents who have fought for years to prevent the solid waste landfill from being built in rural North County applauded the ruling by Judge Michael Anello. The ruling makes permanent a temporary finding that Anello issued last month.

In his 14-page ruling, Anello found that the project fails to provide enough "mitigation" ---- land donated by a developer to offset the destruction of sensitive habitat ---- and that the environmental report inadequately addressed how water would be supplied to the dump.

The ruling is in response to a lawsuit filed against San Diego County and Gregory Canyon Ltd. by three parties: an environmental group called RiverWatch, the city of Oceanside and the Pala Band of Mission Indians.

Several of the plaintiffs declared Anello's ruling a victory.

"This is very important, because it stops the project," RiverWatch attorney Everett DeLano said. "On some of these issues, they're going to have to go back to the drawing board."

Gregory Canyon Ltd. officials responded by saying that they will take the ruling in stride, and carry on with their effort to build the landfill.

"There are many defects that were alleged; we're down to three," Bill Hutton, an attorney for Gregory Canyon Ltd., said Tuesday evening. "We'll provide the information, we'll tweak the project, and move on."

But DeLano said Anello's decision shows there are problems with the project that can't be easily fixed.

In 1994, 68 percent of voters in San Diego County approved Proposition C, which amended the zoning rules to allow for a dump in Gregory Canyon, near the San Luis Rey River two miles east of the Pala reservation.

According to the language in the measure, a minimum of 1,313 acres of the 1,700-acre landfill site must be set aside as open space. Any required mitigation would have to be done in addition to those 1,313 acres.

But in its final environmental report, Gregory Canyon Ltd. said that its mitigation would be done within the same 1,313 acres, creating what Anello described in his ruling as a violation of Prop. C.

In layman's terms, DeLano said, that means Gregory Canyon Ltd. must come up with about 600 to 700 acres of land to make up for the sensitive habitat that the landfill would destroy.

"Frankly, I don't know if it's even possible to find that kind of acreage somewhere else," he said. "This ruling raises the question legally of whether this project can ever be done."

The judge also agreed with RiverWatch that the issue of water supply had not been adequately addressed in Gregory Canyon's environmental report.

Operators would need 193 acre-feet ---- nearly 63 million gallons ---- of water annually in order to run the solid waste facility.

"It's a substantial amount of water that they need for the project, and we felt like they played a little bit of a shell game" in revealing where they would get water, DeLano said.

Anello agreed in his ruling, pointing to a well-water permit that has been pending since 1991 and which seeks permission to take only 116 acre-feet of ground water annually ---- about two-thirds of the required amount.

In his decision, Anello also sided with Gregory Canyon Ltd. on some points, upholding a traffic study and details about the appropriateness of the landfill's location used in the environmental report.

But RiverWatch and the Pala Indians were celebrating Tuesday.

"The tribe considers this a victory, and we are looking forward to pursuing all the environmental issues that we've known existed for years," said Lenore Volturno, Pala's environmental director. "There hasn't been a whole lot that's gone in our favor ---- a lot of things have been brushed aside, and we haven't had much cooperation from the government officials."

Winning several points in the lawsuit "makes a big difference, instead of us going back and forth ---- this shows that there are some legal problems with this project," Volturno said.

Contact staff writer Tom Pfingsten at (760) 731-5799 or tpfingsten@nctimes.com.

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