{"id":196950,"date":"2026-02-27T20:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T20:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/196950\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T20:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T20:03:09","slug":"expansion-of-county-landfill-turns-into-hot-button-campaign-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/196950\/","title":{"rendered":"Expansion of County Landfill Turns Into Hot Button Campaign Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

When county supervisors signed off on an $88 million project to help expand the capacity of the Prima Deshecha landfill in 2023, Supervisor Katrina Foley praised the plan, saying it would open doors for the trash depot to serve her residents for decades to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an important item so that we can continue to provide landfill services in south county,\u201d Foley said at the board\u2019s Sept. 26, 2023 meeting. \u201cAlso appreciate OC Waste and Recycling\u2019s efforts to make it as environmentally friendly as possible. With that, I\u2019ll move the item.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a press release after the meeting<\/a>, she also praised the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project will protect our water shed by building a liner that extends capacity at Prima Deshecha,\u201d Foley wrote. \u201cThis investment will serve many future generations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But after residents got a whiff of the true scope of the landfill\u2019s expansion earlier this year when county staff floated plans to possibly double the amount of trash going to the landfill daily, hundreds of complaints started coming in to Foley.\u00a0<\/p>\n

[Read: South OC Residents Protest Plans To Double Trash Capacity At Local Landfill<\/a>]<\/p>\n

She quickly called a meeting with the County CEO and other department heads, directing county staff to shut down a public meeting talking about doubling the amount of trash allowed to go to the landfill on a daily basis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur office was not informed that this was being done by (OC) Waste and Recycling, and I learned about this from all the residents starting to email me,\u201d Foley said in an interview on Feb. 6. \u201cI have challenged them to do a better job at looking at the landfill as something we\u2019re trying to decrease, not increase.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Supervisor Katrina Foley speaks at the podium during the OC Board of Supervisors meeting on May 20, 2025. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Now, Republican leaders are saying they want to know more about Foley\u2019s role in the landfill\u2019s development, releasing a statement<\/a> on Wednesday night highlighting Foley\u2019s position on both votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure seems like the public should know the discussions between Foley and the CEO and OC Waste department head,\u201d said Will O\u2019Neill, chair of the Orange County Republican Party, in a text to Voice of OC. \u201cIf it takes outside investigators, then bring them in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Voice of OC has already filed public records requests under state law seeking Foley\u2019s communications around the landfill as well as internal communications with OC Waste and Recycling officials about how the project developed, which have not yet been released to the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Foley said the GOP statement was just a political attack on her in the middle of her reelection campaign, where Republican Assemblywoman Diane Dixon has been fundraising to run for that seat despite having not yet filed papers to run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are misleading the public for political reasons,\u201d Foley said in a Thursday interview. \u201cThis is just politics, that\u2019s all it is.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The Prima Deshecha landfill on Wednesday, January 22, 2025. Credit: MAXIMO SANTANA Voice of OC.<\/p>\n

Foley argued the expansion of the landfill in 2023 and proposals around increasing how much waste goes to the landfill this year are two totally separate projects, and that the construction contract she greenlit was to pave the way for a landfill expansion approved long before she joined the board.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a multi-million dollar project that\u2019s already started. What can I do about that?\u201d Foley said. \u201cIt\u2019s well underway. It\u2019s something that was approved by the board of supervisors and city for decades, nothing to do with me. I\u2019m just voting to approve a contract for something that was already approved long before I got to the county,\u201d referring to her 2023 vote.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Francine Bangert, a spokesperson for OC Waste and Recycling, said in a Thursday statement that while the landfill was originally approved to expand in 2001, the groundbreaking didn\u2019t come until 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2023 approval referenced above with Sukut Construction was to initiate Zone 4 development for waste disposal,\u201d Bangert wrote.<\/p>\n

Zone 4 is the other half of the landfill currently under construction that will serve as the primary dumping ground through the end of the century.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Drone footage of the Prima Deshecha landfill in Feb. 2026.\u00a0Credit: JOSE HERNANDEZ \/ VOICE OF OC<\/p>\n

That excavation was the first step to expand the landfill according to a 2023 county staff report, clearing 65 acres of land and seven million cubic yards of dirt and rock to guarantee the landfill would last beyond the end of the century.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Project will provide continued disposal services for the County and increase disposal capacity and operational efficiencies,\u201d staff wrote<\/a>. \u201cDevelopment of Zone 4 of the Prima Landfill is a necessarily included component of the Project.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Foley says her primary issue is with the proposal to double the amount of trash allowed to go to the landfill every day, not the overall size of the landfill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are we adding more trash? We already had a plan. That is what I am disagreeing on. I don\u2019t want us to add more trash,\u201d Foley said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Drone footage of the Prima Deshecha landfill in Feb. 2026.\u00a0Credit: JOSE HERNANDEZ \/ VOICE OF OC<\/p>\n

While debate around the dump is reaching a boiling point, residents next door have been complaining about the noise and poor air quality from construction to expand the landfill since 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Voice of OC public records request found dozens of complaints that went to the county about the landfill\u2019s operations in 2023 and 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dust is crazy in our community from the explosions going on at the expansion,\u201d wrote one San Juan Capistrano resident. \u201cI have lived in this community for eight years and NEVER experienced anything like this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy nose won\u2019t stop running and I can\u2019t stop sneezing,\u201d said another resident. \u201cI can\u2019t sleep because the sneezing is non stop and our air quality is absolutely terrible. My whole family is sneezing non stop. This is unacceptable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This week, one public commenter at the board of supervisors meeting also highlighted that there\u2019s lots of young kids at a public high school \u2013 San Juan Hills High \u2013 near the landfill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Foley said the acreage expansion of the landfill was something she could not stop because it was approved in the early 2000s, there are mounting questions about how she was able to announce a pause in the effort to increase how much trash goes to the dump on a daily basis on her own \u2013 based on her interaction with county staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The OC Republican Party and Foley\u2019s Republican colleagues on the board of supervisors Don Wagner and Janet Nguyen also brought up complaints around Foley\u2019s meeting privately with staff to halt the project, which Foley defended.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Houses sit just outside the footprint of the Prima Deshecha Landfill. Credit: JOSE HERNANDEZ \/ VOICE OF OC<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m doing my job. That\u2019s my job. It\u2019s the same job Don Wagner does when there\u2019s a fire in his district. It\u2019s the same job that Janet does when there is some kind of controversy in her district,\u201d Foley said. \u201cIf there\u2019s an issue in our district, we reach out to the CEO to understand what\u2019s going on. That is absolutely a component of our job.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She also accused them of attempting to mislead the public for political purposes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI did my job exactly how I\u2019m supposed to. If they don\u2019t like the way I did it, their remedy is to put an item on the agenda and to vote on it,\u201d Foley said. \u201cThey\u2019re just trying to mislead the public.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Foley also noted she has not yet met with OC Waste and Recycling staff to talk about the issue of the landfill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need the time to review the documentation. Many current deadlines with competing priorities,\u201d Foley said in a Thursday morning text. \u201cThis is not a rush.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bangert also noted the department is \u201censuring there is better communication with the Board of Supervisors and members of the public related to matters going forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was a public hearing scheduled for March on the landfill efforts at Prima Descheca but it was canceled at Foley\u2019s request to allow for more members of the public to send in comments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org. <\/p>\n

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