Valley Vista's state-of-art transfer station approved

The pending closure of the Puente Hills landfill has communities throughout Southern California looking for ways to better manage their waste handling. A soft economy has those same communities looking for ways to create jobs.

      In Pomona, a newly approved waste transfer station by Industry-based Valley Vista Services will do both, while also pumping $1 million a year into city coffers.

      Nearly a decade in the making, the $15.5 million facility could be operational in about a year, producing 50 jobs and processing up to 1,000 tons of solid waste per day.

      “This is a project we’re confident all of Pomona will be proud of,” said David M. Perez, vice president of Valley Vista.

       He points to the station’s state-of-the-art technology and its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification, which will make the plant one of the most environmentally sound and cleanest in the country. The facility also replaces traditional diesel trucks with those operating on compressed natural gas.

       The City Council approved the proposal on Monday night, and work could begin within a few months.

        Valley Vista has a long history with transfer stations, where smaller trucks take waste to be moved onto bigger trucks and hauled away to a landfill. The company’s transfer station in the City of Industry is widely considered to be a model of efficiency.

        The Pomona Valley Transfer Station will be fully enclosed and use the latest in trash processing, emissions and odor-removal technology. Valley Vista’s plans went through an exhaustive environmental impact study process, and was determined to pose no significant health or environmental risks.

        The benefits, however, are significant.

         Closure of the Puente Hills Landfill, possibly as early as October 2013, is expected to drive up costs for trash hauling, in part because of the logistics that will be involved in transporting waste to the Mesquite Regional Landfill in Imperial County. By centralizing waste collection in satellite locations, facilities such as the Pomona Valley Transfer Station will result in shorter, more efficient hauls.

        The Pomona facility also comes amid high unemployment throughout Southern California as the recession lingers. The plant will create approximately 50 jobs directly, while indirectly supporting another 98 jobs locally and 118 jobs regionally, according to a study by Andrew Chang & Co. The same study projected a local economic impact of $33 million per year, and another $39.9 million regionally.

        Transfer fees from the facilities operations, meanwhile, will provide the city with about $1 million a year – mitigating some of the loss from the elimination of redevelopment agencies.

        “The council showed exemplary leadership in approving this project,” said Larry Egan, executive director of the Downtown Pomona Owners Association. “It sends a powerful message to the region and to the business community generally – that Pomona is a progressive, forward-thinking city that welcomes clean industry, has an ample, viable labor force, and will do what is right.”