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El Sobrante Landfill is a Class 3 regional disposal facility permitted to accept up to 10,000 tons per day, seven days per week. It employs approximately 40 full-time employees. Landfill operations are overseen by the California Integrated Waste Management Board, and the Riverside County Department of Environmental Health.
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When El Sobrante Landfill first opened in 1986, it was in the middle of nowhere. While it is still surrounded by open fields and hills, it is now a ten minute drive to Starbucks, and to the recently opened Promenade Shops at Dos Lagos. In fact, the area around the landfill has seen a record-setting housing, job and population boom. How did we get here and where are we going? Are our open spaces going to fill in until we look like Orange County?
According to John Husing, the influential local economist (recently selected by the Los Angeles Times as one of the 100 most influential people in the Los Angeles area) we are at the tail end of a period of phenomenal growth.
The accelerated population and business growth of the region is following the traditional pattern of growth in San Bernardino in the 1960s, the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s, and Orange County in the 1970s and 1980s.
Geography was at the root of the growth. As a lack of affordable housing in the “coastal counties” (Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura) pushed residents eastward, the Corona area’s location as the closest Riverside area to Orange County made it the first town in the Inland Empire to be part of the outward migration and growth from Orange County. From 2000-2005, Corona saw the sixth largest population growth rate among the Inland Empire’s 48 cities. The area added nearly 24,000 residents to reach a population size of nearly 150,000 residents. Jobs followed people and by 2004, the area had gained over 49,000 new jobs, equaling the growth in Orange and San Diego counties in those years. The Southern California Association of Governments has forecasted that the Inland Empire will add more jobs from 2000-2020 than San Diego, Orange, Ventura and Imperial counties combined.
By now though, the area is all but filled in. There is some continued eastern expansion — for instance Santa Ana Canyon is forecasted to continue to fill in up to Lake Elsinore. However, most major residential growth in the county from here on out will be in multi-unit or mixed use developments.
And yet, we are not going to end up looking like Orange County, where developments have chased the natural beauty of the area to the county’s borders. One crucial difference is the Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan. The plan sets aside approximately 1.26 million acres, including 500,000 acres of habitat. This hugely ambitious habitat reserve is one of the largest such areas in the United States, and this is why the hills immediately surrounding the El Sobrante are going to remain undeveloped. This is also why we work so hard to return our filled landfill cells to their natural, pristine state. The Conservation Plan protects more than endangered species—because it preserves our breathtaking mountain and desert views, it also protects property values!
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