Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 10181988 - T.5 Tc BOARD OF SUPERVISORS " g� FROM: Harvey E. Bragdon, Contra Director of Community Development CJIJJIa DATE'. October 18, 1988 my (`o SUBJECT.. 1988 Revision (Amendment) to the Contra Costa County y County solid Waste Management Plan SPECIFIC REQUEST(S) OR RECOMMENDATIONS) & BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. Consider the following set of six revisions to the Contra Costa County Solid Waste Management Plan (CoSWMP) originally submitted for the Board of supervisors' October 4, 1988, public hearing and modified after consultation with the California Waste Management Board staff. a. The revised_ ( 1988 ) text of the County Solid Waste Management Pian, which addresses modifications to the CoSWMP identified in the California waste Management Board' s deficiency letter of February 10, 1988. b. The inclusion of a "Bailey-Central Supersite" landfill site in the CoSWMP as an intended Reserve Site. C. The inclusion of a Bay Pointe landfill site in the CoswMP as an intended Reserve Site. d. The inclusion of an East Contra Costa sanitary Landfill site in the CoSWMP as an intended Reserve Site. e. The inclusion of an Kirker Pass Waste Management Land- fill site in the CoSWMP as an intended Reserve Site. f. The inclusion of a Marsh Creek landfill site in the CosWMP as an intended Reserve site. 1. Approve the attached Emergency Project Declaration finding that the 1988 version of the CoSWMP is an exempt project under the California Environmental Quality Act. 3. Adopt the attached resolution, subject to any modifications made by the Board, approving the County' s 1980 revision to the County' s Solid waste Management Plan. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: X YES SIGNAT , ACTION OF BOARD ON UCTAPPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER Staff and Board members discussed the proposed revisions and recommendations. Fred Caploe, Attorney for the City of Pittsburg, reviewed the contents of his letter dated October 17, 1988. Nancy Parent, Councilperson, City of Pittsburg spoke. The Board thereupon adopted Resolution: No. 88/655 approving the 1988 revision to the County Solid Waste Management Plan. VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE UNANIMOUS (ABSENT ? AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AYES: NOES AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. cc: Orig. Dept. Community Devel. ATTESTED OCT 18 1988 PHIL BATCHELOR. CLERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR BY DEPUTY M382i7-83 — l 2. FINANCIAL IMPACT Adoption of the plan would impose no new direct financial impacts on the County government. REASONS FOR THE RECOMMENDATION%BACKGROUND The background for 1988 revisions to the County Solid waste Management Plan is provided in the staff reports (memoranda dated October 4, 1988, and August 2:3 , 1988) . Following the Board of Supervisors ' October 4, 1988, hearing on the County Solid Waste Management Plan revisions, County staff consulted with the staff of the California Waste Management Board at that staff ' s request. A few non-substantive modifications were made to the Plan' s text as a result of the staff discus- sions. These will be identified by County staff at the October 18 , 1988, hearing. CAZ%jn 157 :swmp2 .brd 1 THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA Adopted this Order on October 18, 1988, by the following vote: AYES: Supervisors Powers, Fanden, McPeak and Torlakson NOES: None ABSENT: Supervisor Schroder ABSTAIN: None ---------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- SUBJECT: Resolution to Approve a 1988 RESOLUTION NO. 88/655 ,Revision to the County Solid Waste Management Plan ( 14 C.R.C. Section 17150) The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors RESOLVES THAT 1 . This Board, on October 4 and October 18, 1988, after due notice, held public hearings at which time the Board heard comments from the public and County staff on this revision to the Solid Waste Management Plan. 1. The Community Development Director and the Solid Waste Commission have recommended approval of the revised County Solid Waste Management Plan. 3 . The Board hereby adopts the attached Emergency Project Declaration for the 1988 Solid Waste Management Plan revision as in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act. 4. The revised County Solid waste Management Plan is hereby APPROVED. 5. The Community Development Director is further directed to send the Solid waste Management Plan to the cities of Contra Costa County and the California Waste Management Board for approval and the Solid waste Commission is_._ authorized to oversee the approval process of- the Solid Waste Management Plan Revision. I hereby certify that this Is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown. ATTESTED: OCT 18 1988 PHIL QATCHELOR, Clerk of the Board of Supervisors and County Administrator By ,Deputy L16:swmp.brd Orig. Dept: Community Development cc: Solid Waste Commission (via CDD) County Administrator County Counsel California waste Management Board (via CDD) RESOLUTION NO. 88/655 EMERGENCY PROJECT DECLARATION Purpose The Board of Supervisors of Contra Costa County, California, finds that the adoption of a new revised County Solid Waste Management Plan is a matter of imminent necessity which warrants exempting the Plan from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) as an emergency project. This declaration document is intended to state the reasons and the authorities the Board of Supervisors relied on in making its findings . Authority "Specific actions necessary to prevent or mitigate an emergency" are exempt from the requirements of CEQA. (Public Resources Code §21080(b) ( 4 ) ; 14 Cal. Code of Regs. §15269(c) . ) "Emergency" is defined as follows : " 'Emergency' means a sudden, unexpected occurrence, involving a clear and imminent danger, demanding immediate action to prevent or mitigate loss of, or damage to, life, health, property, or essential public service. 'Emergency' includes other such occurrences as fire, flood, earthquake, or other soil or geologic movements, as well as such occurrences as riot., accident, or sabotage. " (P.R.C. §21060. 3 . ) Background Section 66780.1 of the Government Code requires each county to prepare and adopt a Solid Waste Management Plan which is consistent with State policy for all waste disposal in the county. Contra Costa County initially adopted a County Solid Waste Management Plan (CoSWMP) in 1977 and, as required by State law, updated the plan in 1982 with the approval of the cities and the California Waste Management Board ( "CWMB" ) . However, the 1987 updating of the CoSWMP' (a process begun in September of 1986) was rejected by the CWMB on January 13, 1988 after it was approved by the County Board of Supervisors and the requisite number of cities . According to the CWMB, its rejection of the 1987 CoSWMP means that Contra Costa County no longer has a current County Solid Waste Management Plan. The CWMB now advises that it will reject all waste management projects, permits and amendments affecting Contra Costa County subject to its approval, because it cannot find them consistent with a CWMB-approved County Solid Waste Management Plan. The California Waste Management Board has also referred the County' s "delinquency" (failure to have a CWMB-approved CoSWMP) to the California Attorney General for legal action. Emergency Project Declaration -2- IMMEDIATE APPROVAL OF THE REVISED COUNTY SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN IS NECESSARY TO PREVENT OR MITIGATE AN EMERGENCY. A. CONTRA COSTA COUNTY IS FACED WITH A SITUATION INVOLVING POTENTIAL HARM TO THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND INTERRUPTION OF ESSENTIAL PUBLIC SERVICES. The Acme Landfill located in Central Contra Costa County serves the approximately 425, 000 residents of Central County. Due to height limitations imposed upon Acme's permit from the Army Corps of Engineers , it is expected that Acme will close in December, 1988. When that happens, the roughly 225 collection truck-loads of garbage (currently necessary to service Central County residents) , 135 direct-haul truck-loads of demolition and other wastes , and 550 small-vehicle self-haulers currently accommodated at Acme Landfill on a daily basis will have to go somewhere else, or literally, there will be garbage piling up on land, in the streets, or in roadside ditches. There are two other landfills in operation in Contra Costa County. Both of these other landfills are accessed by local arterials which adjoin residential neighborhoods. Even if these two landfills together can accommodate the addition of all of the garbage now going to Acme, the diversion of even half of the traffic now going to Acme to either the West Contra Costa Sanitary Landfill or the Contra Costa Waste Sanitary Landfill would, at the very least, cause traffic to back-up on to adjoining streets , congest major intersections and railroad crossings (WCCSL) , and create congestion at the working face of two landfills . Congestion at the working face will overload the operators ' management capabilities, resulting in increases in noise, odor, litter and vectors. It is questionable whether the operators can accommodate this potential surge in the number of vehicles and still comply with State minimum standards for solid waste disposal. Further, there is..some doubt as to whether the West Contra Costa Sanitary Landfill and the Contra Costa Waste Sanitary Landfill can together accommodate the amount of waste currently disposed of at Acme Fill for any extended period of time. The West Contra Costa Sanitary Landfill in Richmond is currently operating under a Regional Water Quality Control Board permit, the terms of which may prohibit the receipt of more than the addition of approximately 100 tons of waste per day in the near term. If, at Acme Landfill ' s closure, the additional 1, 200 tons per day of waste (of the 1,300 tons per day currently received at Acme) must go to the Contra Costa Waste Sanitary Landfill in Antioch, there is doubt as to whether that landfill can accept the additional garbage because part of the landfill lies over a former hazardous waste landfill which is leaking. As is the case with the West Contra Costa Sanitary Landfill, major increments of fill material could exacerbate leakage . Emergency Project Declaration -3- More significantly, if the current packer trucks, in addition to collecting wastes from individual households, must also take the time to travel to landfills more distant from Acme than the Contra ,Costa Waste Management Landfill, private industry' s current inventory of packer vehicles will not be sufficient to collect garbage from all currently served households on a weekly basis, without the taking of extraordinary measures. Extraordinary measures could include longer collection hours and evening hauls to the more distant landfills. These measures would stress equipment and staff. Finally, without a Central County repository, the County anticipates that the numerous self-haulers will turn to illegal dumping rather than travel the distance to an unfamiliar disposal facility. B. A TRANSFER STATION MUST BE IN OPERATION BY THE TIME ACME CLOSES TO AVERT DISASTER. With a transfer station in operation, rather than roughly 900 garbage-laden vehicles per day being diverted, additional traffic can probably be limited to about 50-60 transfer vehicle loads per day, assuming a 20-ton payload. More importantly, the packer trucks will be freed to continue spending their time performing their function - collecting garbage from individual households and businesses - rather than spending additional time on the road hauling the garbage to more distant disposal sites . With a transfer station in operation at the Acme landfill location the approximately 550 small-vehicle self-haulers per day (about 2 ,000 of which arrive on weekends) currently accommodated at the Acme site can continue to take their waste to Acme. Those who may have resorted to dumping rather than take the time to go to Antioch or Richmond will have less of an incentive to illegally dispose of their waste. C. IMMEDIATE ACTION MUST BE TAKEN ON THE COSWMP IF WE ARE TO HAVE A CENTRAL COUNTY TRANSFER STATION. The operators of the Acme Landfill have long had approval from the County and all other agencies except the CWMB to operate a transfer station at the Acme Landfill site. However, the CWMB has clearly stated its intent to disapprove the Acme transfer station operative permit and any other solid waste facility proposed in Contra Costa County. Thus, lack of a CWMB-approved CoSWMP will prevent the County from having an operational transfer station. The CWMB will not approve the County' s CoSWMP unless the CoSWMP demonstrates eight years of capacity, either by way of reserving sites for solid waste disposal or by obtaining export agreements . Since the lack of an approved CoSWMP renders any export agreement impossible (no County will approve a Contra Costa Emergency Project, Declaration -4- County import agreement unless Contra Costa County has an approved CoSWMP) , the County must satisfy the CWMB by reserving sites for solid waste disposal with eight years of capacity. The County believes that processing of a program environmental impact report would be the proper way of achieving environmental compliance for a CoSWMP which reserves sites for solid waste disposal. However, even the most expedited processing of a program EIR would require between 6-9 months . By then, the Acme Landfill will long have been closed. The County conclude-9 that the existence of a serious emergency justifies the revision of the CoSWMP without preparing a program EIR, in order to prevent imminent harm to public health and interruption of an essential public service. It is noted that the Acme transfer station was the subject of an Environmental Impact Report. In addition, the reserved sites being added to the CoSWMP have had, or will have, site-specific Environmental Impact Reports prepared for them. D. THE NEED FOR A COSWMP WITH RESERVED SITES AROSE SUDDENLY AND WAS TOTALLY UNEXPECTED. The County' s CoSWMP revision process began on or about 11- 19-85, when the County sent its plan review report to the CWMB. ( 14 CCR § 17141 (a) . ) Formal written comments were not received from the CWMB. However, apparently based upon informal comments, a revised plan review report was submitted to the CWMB on 8-11-86. On or about 9-22-86, the CWMB accepted the County' s Plan Review Report. The County began formal revision of its CoSWMP shortly thereafter. At that time, the County was aware that its revised CoSWMP would be delinquent under State regulations if the final version was not delivered to the CWMB by August, 1987. (14 CCR) (§ 17152. ) Communications between the County and the CWMB staff was ongoing, and on 4-21-$7, a preliminary draft of the CoSWMP was submitted to the CWMB staff pursuant to 14 CCR § 17151. Due to the short period of time allowed the County to complete the revised CoSWMP under Section 17152, the County requested the CWMB staff to •complete its review in an expedited fashion, by 5-25- 87 . Under section 17151, the CWMB had 60 days to comment on the County's preliminary draft of its revised CoSWMP. However, comments on the preliminary draft were never received. Without benefit of written comments from the CWMB, on 6- 23-87 the County approved the revised CoSWMP and sent it to the cities for formal review. On 9-29-87, 'the County formally transmitted the revised CoSWMP to the CWMB. The CWMB formally acknowledged receipt of the revised CoSWMP on 10-14-87 . On 1-13-88 (past the CWMB' s 90 day deadline to review the revised CoSWMP) , the CWMB found the revised CoSWMP to be deficient. In a subsequent letter, the CWMB stated that the primary reason for the deficiency was the failure of the revised Emergency Project Declaration -5- CoSWMP to "identify" sites having eight years of capacity for Contra Costa County' s waste. Consistent with its letter, CWMB ......... staff advised County staff that "tentative identification" of sites with eight years. of capacity would satisfy the CWMB for plan approval purposes. The letter from the CWMB also indicated that the County' s CoSWMP delinquency had been referred to the California Attorney General. Following numerous public hearings, during with time the County was constantly in communication with CWMB staff, which staff was aware of the County' s intention to correct the deficiency by tentatively identifying sites, on 8-23-88, the County Board of Supervisors announced its intent to tentatively _ identify selected sites for solid waste disposal. It was not until after 8-23-88 that the CWMB unexpectedly informed the County that tentatively identified sites would not be sufficient; that solid waste disposal site(s ) with eight years of capacity must be "reserved" before the CWMB would approve the CoSWMP. E. CONCLUSION. As a result, the County is now suddenly in a position where it must adopt a CoSWMP reserving sites for solid waste disposal. Otherwise, the CWMB will not approve the County' s CoSWMP. Without an approved CoSWMP, the CWMB will not approve Acme Landfill ' s transfer station facilities permit. An operational transfer station in Central Contra Costa is essential for avoiding or mitigating a garbage disaster. Therefore, the County must approve the revised CoSWMP immediately to avoid or miitigate a garbage emergency.