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Judge
rejects landfill suit as premature |
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December 4, 2004 VISTA – In a tentative ruling, a judge has thrown
out most of a lawsuit challenging the county's decision to grant a permit for
the proposed Superior Court Judge Michael Anello
concluded that the lawsuit was premature and that the attorney representing
the Pala Band of Mission Indians should have waited
for the state to approve the landfill permit before filing the suit. Gary Erbeck, director
of the county's Department of Environmental Health, approved the permit for a
solid-waste facility June 2, basing his decision on the environmental report
the county approved in February 2003. The lawsuit was filed in July. A three-member review panel of the state
Integrated Waste Management Board is scheduled to consider the county's
approval of the landfill permit Monday in Anello issued a similar ruling Sept.
17, this one related to a challenge to the county's approval of the
environmental report for the landfill. He concluded the suit had been filed
prematurely. Ted Griswold, the attorney representing the Pala band, said yesterday he was hoping for a ruling this
time that would have declared that the environmental report was inadequate,
thus forcing the county to reconsider its approval of the permit. "We were afraid if we waited too long to
file our suit, and then the state approved the county permit, then it would
have been too late for us to challenge the county's approval," Griswold
said. "The law is a little unclear in this area, and we wanted to make
sure we covered all of our bases." Attorney Wes Peltzer,
who represents the landfill developer, said he believes the law is quite
clear and that a judge cannot make a ruling on the county decision about the
permit until it is considered final. The lawsuit is one aspect of a 15-year battle to
block construction of the landfill, proposed for a rural canyon off state
Route 76 about three miles east of its intersection with Interstate 15.
Proposition B, a ballot measure intended to stop the landfill, was
overwhelmingly defeated Nov. 2.
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John