• Mesquite Regional Landfill (MRL) is primarily a waste-by-rail project.
• The Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County is seeking to modify the MRL conditional use permit to allow the trucking of some waste. The existing permit allows the landfill to accept 20,000 tons-per-day of municipal solid waste by rail. The proposed permit amendment seeks approval to truck of up to 4,000 (tpd), or 1/5th of what the Mesquite Regional Landfill is permitted to receive.
• Mesquite Regional Landfill will be ready to accept waste in 2009. Initially, some trucking is needed because the rail infrastructure at Mesquite and at the front end is not projected to be completed until 2011/2012.
• The Sanitation Districts propose to truck 300 tons-per-day of waste to Mesquite beginning in 2009—about 15 round trips daily—to get the landfill into operation. That small-scale operation would pay Imperial County a host fee of about $100,000 per year. Even after there is the 4,000 tpd of waste needed to fill a unit train, some trucking would be needed. Truck hauling would be used until tonnage increases enough to fill successive trains.
• A number of factors contribute to determining how many trucks will be needed to transport waste to MRL in future years. The proposed permit modification would allow up to 200 trucking round trips per day.
• The Sanitation Districts track the amount of waste that goes to landfills daily and the permitted capacity of landfills used by its Los Angeles County communities, their limitations and potential expansions. It also monitors population projections in its service area. These and other factors are used to develop projection reports to estimate when a landfill capacity shortfall is likely to occur.
• The landfill capacity shortfall analysis provides a way to project the amount of waste that will move from Sanitation Districts communities to the MRL, either by a 4,000-ton-per-day unit train, or by truck.
• In 2009, when the Mesquite Regional Landfill becomes operational, the Sanitation District’s projections show there will be between 10,000 and 16,000 tons/day of excess landfill capacity in Los Angeles County. Although this means there is no immediate need to export trash to the Mesquite Regional Landfill, the Sanitation Districts are proposing to conduct a 300 tons/day (approximately 15 trucks) operation. This operation will provide jobs and host fee revenue to Imperial County sooner.
• The projections continue to show excess landfill capacity in LA County until late 2013, when the Puente Hills Landfill, which is operated by the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, will be closed permanently. According to the projections, there may still be some excess capacity at other landfills. However, there could be an overall shortfall of 4,500 tons/day, which would mean there would be enough waste to fill a waste-by-rail train, with approximately 500 tons/day of waste that would require truck hauling to Mesquite Regional Landfill.
