They agreed it was something they didn’t want to do. But, Santa Barbara County Supervisors said they had no choice, and on Tuesday unanimously approved a major expansion of the county’s landfill.
The county will expand its 118 acre Tajiguas Landfill site by 14 acres. The landfill in the mountains on the Gaviota Coast. County Public Works officials say the move is needed because the existing dump will be at capacity in 2026.
The county approved construction of a major, state-of-the-art recycling facility on the site in 2017. It was projected the facility would help extend the life of the existing dumpsite to 2038. But, issues with the plant and a spike in the amount of garbage being created threw the projections off track.
Some environmental groups objected to the expansion, citing problems like added pollution. But, county officials said the alternative of trucking the garbage out of the county would be even worse environmentally.
