Environment 7-3

Ventura officials celebrated their equivalent of the Light Blue Line project that had met bitter and ultimately triumphant resistance in Santa Barbara last year. A 100-foot-long blue wave was painted on a parking garage along Ventura’s waterfront to show how high the water would rise if Greenland’s icesheet should melt. A similar display in Santa Barbara was quashed by the real estate lobby, which contended that the Light Blue Line would harm sales, and by Santa Barbara News-Press editorials.

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While Santa Barbara officials discuss how to convert trash at Tajiguas landfill into energy, Santa Barbara County resident Mike Hoover has already submitted plans to the state waste board to convert trash at his landfill into ethanol or electricity. Hoover, a hydrologist, said his Chicago Grade Landfill near Atascadero contains enough green and food waste to create about 10 million annual gallons of ethanol-or 7.5 kilowatts of electricity-through the process known as “acid-hydrolysis conversion.”