Sonoma County delays landfill sale vote

<p>Sonoma County supervisors have put off until Oct. 27 a vote on a contract to sell the Mecham Road landfill to Republic Services because they needed more time to review details of the proposal.</p><p>Board chairman Paul Kelley announced the delay during Tuesday’s supervisors meeting, just as a couple dozen representatives of groups opposed to landfill sale were preparing to hear debate. Kelley said supervisors were still receiving last minute clarifications on details of the final contract proposal.</p><p>“We are digesting the information to make sure that we have solid information before we make a decision,” said Kelley.</p><p>Supervisor Shirlee Zane said she continues to have serious reservations about the transaction. She said she is not convinced that the proposed contract contains strong enough provisions encouraging recycling and or enough assurances that Republic will be responsible for landfill reopening costs.</p><p>“Fundamentally, I cannot agree to the complete privatization of our solid waste disposal because it will mean that we must ultimately give up control and authority over this critical environmental issue,” Zane said.</p><p>During debate last week, Zane had been part of the unanimous straw vote among the five supervisors to put the issue on Tuesday agenda and to require public works officials to negotiate several new provisions with the Arizona-based waste processor. Among them were provisions to allow Sonoma Compost more time to operate at the landfill, to prevent shutdown of four trash transfer stations without county approval and to reaffirm Republic’s intent not to process out-of-county trash.</p><p>Because the landfill sale is a real estate transaction, a four-fifths vote of the panel is required for approval. None of the other supervisors made comments at Tuesday’s meeting, although all except Zane have previously indicated they believe that reopening the landfill is so expensive that sale to a private company may be the only way to reverse current practice of trucking trash to out-of-county dumps.</p><p>Republic Services proposes opening a new section of the county landfill by installing a $70 million liner that prevents leakage of toxics into area groundwater. It wants a 20-year commitment of trash flow from cities and promises $2.7 million in annual royalties to the county.</p><p>If supervisors give final approval, Republic intends to apply to state authorities to reopen the landfill, which could begin accepting trash in 2012. Public works officials are awaiting a vote by supervisors before negotiating with city councils to secure agreement that their residents’ trash will go to a privately owned dump.</p>