Point Reyes Light- September 3, 1998
Truckload of pot puts a lid on Point Reyes Station landfill
Sheriff's Lt. Jim Riddell at 8:45 a.m. Tuesday delivered the last refuse scheduled to go into the West Marin Sanitary Landfill: 16 marijuana plants seized Monday west of Walker Creek in Tomales.
Riddell said deputies in aircraft spotted the five- to six-foot plants, which were already starting to bud.
At the Point Roint Reyes Station landfill, the plants were pulverized by a bulldozer and then buried, although dump owner Leroy Martinelli joked it might be better to put them "in cold storage and take them to the farmers' market Saturday."
In related news:
Shoreline Disposal this week filed a declaratory-relief lawsuit against the County of Marin, Bolinas Public Utility District, and Stinson Beach Water District.
The problem of forcing self-haulers from West Marin to take their trash to Novato's landfill has revived concern about that landfill's dangerous entrance off Highway 101.
With the landfill having cut back its hours even before it closed for good Saturday, increasing amounts of trash are being dumped along West Marin roads.
Under orders from the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, last Saturday was the final day for West Marin Sanitary Landfill to accept trash, and the landfill's mountain of garbage is supposed to be covered by the end of this month.
Martinelli said he will continue to accept construction debris on Tuesdays since it can be used to cap the garbage heap, but all other trash will be barred.
The landfill owner and others have repeatedly warned the dump's closure will result in people dumping trash along West Marin roadsides, and this week refuse ranging from an old refrigerator to couches and household garbage could be seen along Tomasini Canyon Road in Point Reyes Station and along Highway 1 in Hamlet.
To avoid such littering, Martinelli and others would like to see a dropoff site created at West Marin Sanitary Landfill. Self-haulers would take their trash there, and it would later be trucked to Redwood Landfill.
Last year, Supervisor Steve Kinsey assembled a "Waste Brigade" to advise county government what to do about West Marin trash after the landfill closes. Saying it would be too expensive to establish a dropoff site in West Marin, the brigade recommending forcing people who haul their own trash to take it Redwood Landfill in Novato.
The proposal may not be dead, however, and garbagemen are scheduled to meet with county staff Sept. 9 in Civic Center to further consider a dropoff site.
A major problem with forcing self-haulers to drive to Redwood is that vehicles entering or exiting that landfill southbound must cross four lanes of 65 mph traffic on Highway 101.
State and county government realize these crossings are dangerous, and the county is now considering either closing the median crossing or lengthening an acceleration lane.
Farhad Mansourian, director of the county Public Works Department, told The Light either short-term solution would take about six months. A permanent solution - probably either an overpass or an extension of Binford Road from Gnoss Field to Redwood - would take five to six years, he added.
"We now need to do an economic study and an environmental study," said Mansourian. "That cannot be done quickly because a number of policy decisions need to be made."
Caltrans is now prepared to "do a complete project study," he added. In the meantime, Mansourian said, the state can put up warning signs and lights, as well as increase the enforcement of speed limits along Highway 101.
Meanwhile, ripples from West Marin Landfill's closing have begun to spread. Peter Brekhus, an attorney for the Martinellis, has noted that sealing the dump and monitoring it for leakage will cost $4 million. No one wants to foot the bill, and most observers previously predicted the issue would end up in court. Now it has. Here's what has happened:
In 1992, Shoreline Disposal, a subsidiary of Sonoma Marin Waste Management (SOMA), and its owner Larry Johnson acquired 22.5 percent interest in the landfill.
However, after Bolinas Public Utility District questioned whether that created a conflict of interest - since pickup rates are partially determined by dropoff fees at the dump - Johnson in July, 1996, gave back his interest in the landfill to the Martinellis.
At the same time, Johnson and the Martinellis signed a letter that said SOMA would contribute $35,000 toward an application fee for the Martinellis to operate a dropoff station at their landfill. Any disputes, the letter said, would be handled through arbitration.
This past April, Johnson sold Shoreline Disposal and SOMA to USA Waste, now known as Waste Management Inc. The corporation also owns Redwood Landfill.
In May, the Martinelli family filed a $35,000 complaint against Johnson and SOMA, claiming they had reneged on their agreement to help finance the dropoff station's application fee.
This week, attorney Al Bianchi on behalf of Johnson and Shoreline Disposal filed a cross-complaint against the Martinellis, West Marin Sanitary Landfill, the County of Marin, Bolinas Public Utility District, and Stinson Beach Water District.
As regards Johnson and the Martinellis, attorney Bianchi claims the July, 1996, letter is not a valid contract because four months later it was superseded by a formal agreement, which made no mention of creating a dropoff site.
The county, Stinson Beach Water District, and BPUD have become entangled because these local governments manage garbage disposal within their jurisdictions; the three had previously granted exclusive franchises to Shoreline Disposal to pickup household garbage and dispose of it at the landfill, as Johnson's cross-complaint explains.
"The franchisors are not parties to the arbitration agreement," noted the cross-complaint. "Therefore they cannot be compelled to participate in the arbitration instituted by West Marin [Sanitary Landfill] and the Martinellis against [Johnson, Waste Management and Shoreline].
"The franchisors are, however, parties to one of the three inter-related contracts at issue, and as a consequence of their regulatory functions and interest in the management of solid waste, [they] have a recognizable interest in any adjudication of disputes arising under the three agreements."
Johnson's cross-complaint asks that a judge "expeditiously" decide which agreement is valid and what the "rights and duties" of all the parties are.
Martinelli this week told The Light he also hopes to get $5 million from Johnson through arbitration because Shoreline stopped bringing garbage to the landfill a year ago although, Martinelli claims, Johnson had agreed to keep on using the dump.
Not surprisingly, one of the questions Bianchi's cross-complaint puts to the courts is: "Did West Marin [Sanitary Landfill] contract away or otherwise lose all right to have Shoreline use the landfill after Sept. 30, 1997, so as to no longer have a viable claim for Shoreline's non-use of the landfill after Sept. 30, 1997?"