HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 02131990 - 1.54 TOS BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
FROM Marice Ashe, Executive Assistant to the n,.,..,}�
Hazardous Materials Commission Cwt
February 6, 1990
DATE* Cly
SUBJECT Regarding Working Paper on the State/County Negotiation on "Fair
Share" and the Hazardous Waste Management Plan.
SPECIFIC REQUEST(S) OR RECOMMENDATION(S) & BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
APPROVE sending the attached working paper on "State/County
Negotiations on' 'Fair Share' and the Hazardous Waste Management
Plans as mandated by AB2948" to the County legislative assistant,
Mr. Leslie Spahnn. The working paper will be used as a background
piece in the event that the Contra Costa legislative delegation
needs to be informed on key aspects of the Hazardous Waste
Management Plan.
REASONS AND RECOMMENDATION/BACKGROUND:
The Contra Costa Hazardous Waste Management Plan is reaching the
final stages of the approval process with the State Department of
Health Services . While the negotiations on the "fair share"
language seem to be moving forward with DHS, the approval of the
Hazardous Waste Management Plan is not guaranteed. It may be
appropriate at some point to update the legislative delegation on
the importance of the Hazardous Waste Management Plan to Contra
Costa County. The working paper summarizes the key issues as they
pertain to Contra Costa needs .
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CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES SIGNATURE:
RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE
APPROVE OTHER
S 1 GNATURE S : G%CE�%�`
ACTION OF BOARD ON February U, Ig90 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER
VOTE OF SUPERV190RS
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 ATTESTED FEB 1J Dg1990
County
CC: health Services (2) �
County Administrator PHIL BATCHELOR, CLERK OF THE BOARD OF
County Council SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR
M382/7-83 BY lL ,DEPUTY
STATE/COUNTY NEGOTIATIONS
ON "FAIR SHARE" IN THE
HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT PLANS
AS MANDATED BY AB2948 (TANNER, 1986 )
AB2948 (Tanner, 1986
Assembly Bill 2948 authorizes counties, working in cooperation
with the cities, to develop county Hazardous Waste Management Plans
(HWMP) for the management of all hazardous waste generated within
the county. AB2948 establishes procedures for the citing of new
hazardous waste management facilities, including a process for
appealing the local decision on a land use permit application for
off-site, multi-user facilities . The project applicant may appeal
conditions imposed by the land use decision or appeal the rejection
of a land use permit. In addition, the law allows interested
persons to file an appeal of an approved land use permit on the
grounds that the conditions imposed on the project do not
adequately protect public health, safety or welfare.
The law states that its intent is to establish a comprehensive
planning process in which state and local government, the public,
and industry jointly develop safe and effective solutions for the
management and disposal of hazardous waste, to ensure that local
governments are assisted adequately by the state in carrying out
their responsibilities, and to provide funding for local level
planning. The law specifies that plans should be prepared with
full and meaningful involvement of the public, environmental
groups, civic associations, generators of hazardous waste, and the
hazardous waste management industry.
Contra Costa County Actions to Implement AB2948
Since Contra Costa County generates more than 400,000 tons of
hazardous waste annually, the Hazardous Waste Management Plans
authorized under AB2948 are of critical importance to this county.
Public health and safety, environmental protection, and adequate
planning for the future siting of hazardous waste management
facilities in Contra Costa County are all addressed in the
Hazardous Waste Management Plan. It is imperative that Contra
Costa County plan for the safe and responsible reduction,
recycling, treatment, and disposal of hazardous wastes .
The plan was developed according to the following purposes:
o To analyze data on hazardous waste generation and
management within the county.
o To establish policies that ensure the safe and
responsible management of hazardous waste within
the county. A major focus of these policies is
the reduction of hazardous waste generation.
o To assess the current capacity of hazardous waste
management facilities located within Contra Costa
and to identify the need for hazardous waste
storage, transfer, recycling, treatment, and
disposal facilities to manage the hazardous waste
generated within the county to the year 2000 .
o To establish criteria for the siting of hazardous
waste management facilities
o To plan, in conjunction with all counties, to
ensure that needed hazardous waste. management
facilities are available
Contra Costa County wrote this plan with extensive involvement by
the public, industrial associations, cities, labor unions, sanitary
districts, and others . The Hazardous Materials Commission, an
advisory body to the Board of Supervisors, oversaw the writing of
the plan. They discussed, debated, and approved each of the goals
and policies outlined in this plan. These goals and policies
encourage and require the reduction of hazardous wastes and
facilitate the responsible handling of hazardous waste within the
county.
The plan has been approved by the majority of the cities with the
majority of the incorporated population in the county. It is
currently submitted to the DHS for final approval. The deadline
for approval/disapproval of the plan is February 28, 1990 .
Assemblywoman Tanner has introduced new legislation AB2595 which
would give the Department of Health Services authority to re-review
hazardous waste management plans that are disapproved by the
statutory deadline.
The "Fair Share" Principle
Most California counties have agreed to incorporate "fair share"
language within their county Hazardous Waste Management Plans . The
"fair share" language is based on the following principle: that
each county must be able to manage the amount of hazardous waste
generated within its jurisdiction. In other words, since Contra
Costa County generates approximately 400,000 tons of hazardous
waste annually, it must be able to provide treatment facilities for
400, 000 tons of waste annually. The county must also be able to
show responsible management of the variety of waste streams
generated by industries based in Contra Costa.
"Fair Share" denotes that each county is responsible for the
disposition of its own waste. A county cannot be required to
accept a facility with the capacity that significantly exceeds the
county's own needs, except as provided by interjurisdictional
agreement. It is recognized that the waste streams in each county
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will probably not. support an economically efficient hazardous waste
facility of each type needed to handle a county's waste.
Therefore, counties are encouraged to enter into
inter jurisdictional agreements to balance economic efficiency in
the size of facilities and to responsibly handle their "fair share"
of waste generated. If the county has approved the siting of a
facility or facilities that have a capacity equal to or in excess
of the county's. total hazardous waste management needs, the county
will have achieved its "fair share" of hazardous waste management
facility siting. It cannot be forced to accept the siting of
additional facilities except as provided by an inter jurisdictional
agreement. This "fair share" language is not operative unless an
interjurisdictional agreement is in place.
The "Fair Share" Principle Applied to Contra Costa County
The "fair share" principle promotes a reasonable and responsible
method for siting hazardous waste management facilities throughout
California. It allows counties such as Contra Costa to protect
itself from being a dumping ground for hazardous wastes generated
in the State, as well as generated in other states . Since Contra
Costa is so well situated on transportation routes (rail lines,
waterways and highways) and because our land is relatively
inexpensive and is zoned for heavy industrial uses, it is likely
that private industry may want the site facilities here.
Inter jurisdictional agreements would protect Contra Costa from
having to site facilities above and beyond local needs . It gives
the county and cities leverage in rejecting land use applications
for the siting of new facilities . As Contra Costa is moving to a
mixed economy of industrial service, residential, recreational
activities, it is important that hazardous waste management plans
protect all residents and all uses of county land.
Consequences if the HWMP is not approved
If the HWMP is not approved by the DHS, local control over land use
decisions can be usurped by the State. AB2948 gives the State
legal authority to make land use decisions on the siting of
Hazardous Waste Management facilities if an approved HWMP is not
in place. All decisions regarding the siting will therefore be out
of the control of the local government, and any additional
protections or mitigation measures that the local government would
have required can be overlooked by the State. It is important to
note that the appeals process outlined in AB2948 provides the State
authority to override a local land use decision. However, with an
approved HWMP, . a local government maintains its primary
jurisdictional role in approving/disapproving local land use
proposals prior to the appeals process .
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Department of Health Services Response to - the "Fair Share"
Principle and HWMPs
California counties have been negotiating with the Department of
Health Services for the past two years regarding the "fair share"
principle. Initially DHS rejected any language referring to "fair
share, " and threatened to disapprove all county hazardous waste
management plans that utilized "fair share" language. On October
6, 1989 , Ken Kizer, M.D. , Director, Health Services Department,
amended the DHS approach to the "fair share" principle. He
indicated that plans using the fair share principle could be
conditionally approved if certain requirements were also met in the
plans . He outlined four conceptual requirements that must be
incorporated into hazardous waste management plans to receive DHS
approval. Up until January 19, 1990, Contra Costa staff was told
by DHS staff that even though these four conceptual principles were
accommodated in the county's Hazardous Waste Management Plan, the
Plan would still be disapproved if "fair share" language was in the
Plan.
On January19, 1990, Supervisor Sunne McPeak, Paul De Falco, Chair
of the Hazardous Materials Commission, and Marice Ashe, staff to
the Hazardous Materials Commission, met as part of a CSAC
delegation with Ken Kizer, Dave Willis and other state staff . At
this meeting Dr. Kizer indicated that "fair share" language could
be left in hazardous waste management plans if the following caveat
sentence were added to the plan: " 'fair share' language is . not
operative until interjurisdictional agreements are in place. "
At this time, this caveat language seems acceptable to Contra Costa
County. The county will work with cities to adopt this language
as an amendment to the Hazardous Waste Management Plan. If the
majority of the cities with the majority of the population approve
this new language, it will be submitted to the Department of Health
Services as an amendment to the county' s Hazardous Waste
Management Plan. It is hoped that this approval can be reached
before the February 28, 1990, deadline.
While there has been tremendous movement on the part of DHS in
negotiating with counties on "fair share" language, there is still
reason for caution and it would be naive to be overly optimistic
that the Hazardous Waste Management Plan will be approved. Several
counties have had their plans rejected for seemingly capricious
reasons . For .example, Butte County's plan was rejected because it
did not allow hazardous waste facilities.within radius of the major
watershed serving northern California. Fresno County's plan was
rejected because it did not allow residual repositories in an area
zoned with significant seismic activity. It is certainly possible
that DHS will find similar reasons to reject Contra Costa's
Hazardous Waste Management Plan even though DHS has come a long way
in discussing the "fair share" principle.
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