Point Reyes Light- October 15, 1998
West Marin faces trash problems and solutions
In the wake of West Marin Sanitary Landfill's closing, sheriff's deputies in West Marin this week reported finding trash dumped along Chileno Valley Road, Lucas Valley Road, Highway 1, and especially Tomasini Canyon Road.
Deputies noted that apparently not all West Marin residents realize the dump has closed. They show up at the landfill gate, get frustrated that it's locked, and unload their trash there rather than drive it to East Marin, an officer speculated.
Acknowledging the problem, Supervisor Steve Kinsey on Wednesday said the county plans to eventually have a site somewhere in West Marin where self-haulers can drop off their garbage, rather than having to truck it to East Marin for disposal in Novato or San Rafael.
"Over the next two weeks," he added, "we will see what we can do on an interim basis."
Where an interim dropoff site might be established and how often it would be open has not been determined, Kinsey noted.
In July, staff of the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board, which is making sure the dump is properly closed, suggested that a full-blown transfer station be established on the landfill's property.
"[The landfill] site could well be an appropriate one," Kinsey agreed this week. In fact, he added, there could be "some advantages to that site" because workers will be on the property anyway monitoring the landfill's closure.
Like a dropoff site, a transfer station would accept self-haulers' trash, which would be later trucked over the hill; however, a transfer station would be open on a regular basis and could also accept trash from a garbage-pickup company.
"I don't have any problem with a transfer station," said Kinsey, "as long as it's economically viable."
The supervisor noted that Leonard Stefanelli, vice president of Richmond Sanitary Service, has submitted a proposal to the county for operating a transfer station on the landfill property.
The county, Kinsey added, is now comparing the cost of a transfer station with the cost of having a pickup service haul garbage directly to East Marin.
Stefanelli said the county has been sitting on his proposal for months - even though it has the potential to solve the legal, financial, and environmental problems caused by the landfill's closure.
As proposed by Stefanelli, Richmond Sanitary would build a transfer station at the landfill and truck the trash to its Portrero Hill Landfill (which despite its name is located in Fairfield west of Travis Air Force Base).
As part of the deal, Richmond Sanitary would pay the Point Reyes Station dump's closure and post-closure costs, which are expected to reach $4 million.
Such an arrangement would free the County of Marin, Bolinas Public Utility District, Stinson Beach Water District, Shoreline Disposal, Waste Management (which owns Shoreline Disposal and Novato Sanitary Landfill), and the Martinelli family (who own West Marin Sanitary Landfill) from current litigation over who should pick up the closure costs.
Richmond Sanitary proposes to amortize its investment over 30 years by adding 90 cents per month to garbage bills. Even so, said Stefanelli, West Marin households would still pay less than they would if their garbage-pickup company uses Redwood Landfill.
The reason Richmond Sanitary can do the job cheaper, he explained, is that Redwood Landfill charges $44 for every ton of garbage it accepts; in addition, transporting garbage to Redwood from West Marin adds about $6 per ton, creating a total of about $50.
In contrast, he said, Portrero Hill charges $35 for every ton of garbage it accepts, and even with $10 tacked on for transportation, the cost to West Marin households would be only $45 per ton - a $5 per ton savings.
Stefanelli said that initially Richmond Sanitary's proposal was acceptable to most of the parties involved, but earlier this year USA Waste bought Redwood Landfill, Shoreline Disposal, and ultimately Waste Management (one of the largest garbage companies in the world).
To help pay for these mergers, Waste Management (as the new conglomerate is called) is trying to maximize its intake at Redwood Landfill, Stefanelli claimed.
After the mergers, he said, Waste Management became unhappy about losing 7,000 tons of garbage per year to Portrero Hill and began insisting that it be allowed to import an equal tonnage from outside the county.
Supervisor Kinsey on Tuesday confirmed that Redwood Landfill is now dickering about whether it can import sewage sludge and other unconventional waste.
While all this and the location of a temporary dropoff site are being sorted out, "the county should fully prosecute folks illegally dumping," said Kinsey on Wednesday, adding that he plans to discuss the matter with Sheriff Bob Doyle.