SAN DIEGO — Efforts to stop a landfill development in East Otay Mesa have been stalled.
Senate Bill 1208, which would have made it harder to build the recycling center and landfill, didn’t gain enough votes to pass the assembly.
Opponents of the project are concerned about it bringing more pollution to the South Bay.
Democratic state Senator Steve Padilla, who represents the South Bay, authored SB 1208 that originally would have prohibited a regional water board from issuing wastewater permits for a new landfill in the Tijuana River National Estuary. It was later amended to read that if approved it would need to meet strict environmental protections.
Late Saturday night it failed to get enough support to move forward.
“The fight is not over,” said Padilla.
The bill gained massive support from elected officials and environmental advocates.
Stephanie Peck founded Protect Otay Foothills to raise awareness about the landfill.
“The project being put in the Tijuana River tributary system is illogical. It’s the antithesis to everything that all organizations and individuals are trying to do to clean up the Tijuana River cross border pollution issue,” said Peck.
In 2010 voters approved plans for a landfill to be built in East Otay Mesa.
At the time reports showed the county would need a new landfill by 2030, but that’s since been extended to 2053.
Both sides say political interest groups are in the pockets of legislators to support and oppose the landfill project.
South Bay Assemblymember David Alvarez, democrat, testified he wants the regional water quality control board to have final approval which isn’t a requirement for other landfills.
In an email to CBS 8 he wrote that if the environmental review process shows the project will harm the area, he won’t support it.
Ben Hueso is the former state senator who now works for National Enterprise, the company who wants to develop the 340-acre landfill site.
“It will be designed with a non-permeable member to protect the watershed. It will have controls so that any water that is extracted is completely held within the project and process,” said Ben Hueso.
He says developers are finalizing their application for permits which will then go through environmental review and public input.
“It will give the public a chance to really scrutinize this project and see what it is all about and how it’s going to serve the San Diego community.
Developers are happy SB 1208 isn’t moving forward, but opponents aren’t giving up.
“I will keep fighting to protect this watershed to protect the health and well-being of people who live in the border of regions who have been poison and been dumped on for more than a century and overlooked and those days are over,” said Padilla.
WATCH RELATED: Residents raise concerns about health, air pollution impacts of Otay landfill