Ventura County Board of Supervisors Approves Zoning Change for Agromin Compost Facility Expansion

OXNARD, Calif. - Sept. 22, 2015 - PRLog -- In a unanimous 5-0 vote on September 15, 2015, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors approved a zoning change that will enable Agromin to expand its composting facility on Limoneira Company property near Santa Paula. Agromin, headquartered in Oxnard, is the food and organic waste composter for cities throughout Ventura County and its unincorporated areas. Agromin’s organic compost and soil products are used by farmers, landscapers and homeowners.

         Agromin currently operates at Limoneira on a 15-acre site in an unincorporated portion of the county. It hopes to increase the size to up to 100 acres. Agromin also has a 9-acre composting yard in Oxnard near Ormond Beach, but plans to close the facility once the Santa Paula expansion is complete. Before the expansion can take place, the new facility must be permitted by the county. The transition to the larger site is expected to take place in about three years.

         “Having a composting location that can handle all of the county’s green and food waste ensures that the county doesn’t not have to send its recyclable organic materials outside the area for composting or have it end up in landfills,” says Bill Camarillo, Agromin CEO. “With new laws coming on the books that reduce how much cities can place in landfills, Ventura County and its cities will be in great shape to be in full compliance for years to come.”

         Agromin would process about 300,000 tons of organic material at the expanded site each year—200,000 tons would be green waste from homes and businesses and 100,000 would be food waste from restaurants and other food service facilities. Once collected and cleaned, the material is naturally processed into compost and mulch. Of the processed material, 60 percent will be used by Ventura County commercial farmers. The rest would be used in residential, commercial and municipal landscapes. Agromin also plans to capture the gases created by the composting process and turn it into clean biofuels that can be used by trucks, buses and other vehicles.

         “Ventura County has always been ahead of other counties when it comes to organic waste recycling and repurposing,” says Camarillo. “This is just the latest example.”