Effects of the recession have trickled all the way down to the dump: Faced with a sharp drop in trash tonnage, Merced County's landfills are struggling to make ends meet.</p><p>There are two landfills in the county--one on Highway 59 near the city of Merced, and one on Billy Wright Road in Los Ba&#241;os. According to the county's public works department, which operates the dumps, their trash intake dropped from roughly 28,000 tons in January 2006 to 17,000 tons last month.</p><p>Because the landfills charge customers by weight, the decline in tonnage has translated into an equally steep reduction in revenue.</p><p>"Throughout the recession, Merced County has been ground zero, and this is just another facet of that," Merced County Supervisor Deidre Kelsey said. "You know it's bad when the landfills are hurting."</p><p>Waste from construction sites once comprised a considerable portion of the trash brought to the landfills, but that changed with the building boom's abrupt end, said Sam Chandler, a deputy public works director who oversees the landfills. "It just completely stopped," Chandler said.</p><p>Landfill workers also have recorded a marked drop in the amount of trash delivered from residential curb-side pickups, he said. "We think it's partly because people are buying less and holding on to things longer, but it's also probably because there are just less people here. People have literally left."</p><p>The landfills' recycling intake also has declined, possibly because more people are choosing to turn in their bottles and cans to collect the redemption value.</p><p>The landfills are slated to take several measures this month aimed at closing a roughly $4 million budget shortfall. Eight workers will lose their jobs Sept. 25. Reduced hours will take effect at both sites Sept. 28. Besides closing 30 minutes earlier during the week, the landfills no longer will operate on Sundays and will open for only half the day on Saturdays.</p><p>Chandler said those reductions will result in lower equipment, fuel, maintenance and overtime costs.</p><p>"We had a choice between lowering our costs and raising our rates, and it ultimately was decided that we should lower costs," said Jesse Brown, executive director at the Merced County Association of Governments, which governs how the landfills operate. "We would have had to raise the tipping fees by a considerable amount, and I think the policy board felt like people are being squeezed enough right now as it is."</p><p>The county has estimated that its two landfills have the capacity to take in trash until at least 2050.</p><p><i>Merced Sun-Star reporter Corinne Reilly can be reached at (209)385-2477 or creilly@mercedsun-star.com.</i>