While political folks of various stripes this week debate whether the Sonoma County central landfill should be publicly- or privately-owned – see the Bleys Rose story here – one unpleasant financial reality often goes unmentioned.

The reality is this: Public or private, the landfill isn’t likely to be re-opened unless Sonoma County cities agree to share the costs and guarantee that they will send their garbage to the re-opened landfill.

If the cities don’t agree, it’s likely Sonoma County will be loading its garbage on trucks and shipping the stuff to distant sites FOREVER.

And how embarrassing would that be for a county that proclaims its devotion to environmental stewardship and measures to combat global warming?