About face: Sonoma County considers reopening landfill

<p>After failing to agree on sale of the central landfill, Sonoma County supervisors now are shopping for a company to reopen and operate the shuttered dumpsite.</p><p>The Mecham Road facility, closed to trash since 2005, is the subject of renewed debate because supervisors voted Tuesday to seek bids from waste processors interested in temporarily reopening it and securing new state permits for expanding it. </p><p>County officials acknowledged they are taking those steps despite being uncertain whether their efforts will stave off state waste regulators who ordered the landfill to begin closure proceedings following discovery that a damaged dump liner might harm groundwater.</p><p>County officials estimate that if incoming trash is supervised for maximum recycling and composting diversion, the central landfill has another 15 to 18 months of capacity before it would have to be capped.</p><p>Search for a new landfill operator is part of the county's effort to figure out the future of trash collection in Sonoma County in the wake of overwhelming opposition to landfill sale from city officials, environmental advocacy groups and some local businesses. The county administration's move to sell the landfill to Republic Services of Phoenix failed to secure approval of the required number of supervisors.</p><p>Because the $14 million contract with North Bay Corp. for carting trash from county transfer stations to East Bay dumps expires in August, county officials are scrambling to replace it with a short term contract and also deal with the long term problem of landfill capacity.</p><p>Supervisors agreed Tuesday to seek bids on a contract of up to four years for transferring the trash collected at five transfer stations. Bidders will be asked to submit proposals on temporarily opening the landfill and also on operating it over the long term by obtaining state permits and making expansion improvements estimated to cost $70 million.</p><p>In response to criticism from city officials that their negotiations with Republic Services were unneccessarily secretive, supervisors also decided to form a task force of city and county representatives to review long term plans for the Mecham Road facility.</p><p>“Every option requires a commitment of flow,” said Phil Demery, public works director, referring to trash from the cities.</p><p>Councilmembers from several cities — Pamela Torliatt of Petaluma, Mike McGuire of Healdsburg, Debora Fudge of Windsor, Sarah Glade Gurney of Sebastopol and Steve Barbose of Sonoma — told supervisors they welcomed the cooperative arrangement.</p><p>“If we have a unified front, then I think people will be willing to listen to us,” said Torliatt, whose city sends its trash to Waste Management's Redwood landfill near Novato.</p><p>Advocates representing zero waste groups, environmental organizations and an advisory panel called the Solid Waste Task Force applauded the county's new effort to find a local solution for local trash. However, several representatives also called for the county to require higher standards of diversion in order to reduce the amount of unrecycled trash.</p><p>“Most of what we send out of county is compostible or recyclable,” said Portia Sinnott, a solid waste task force member. “We should put diversion first.”</p><p>The two-hour public hearing and board discussion on options for the landfill's future produced considerable debate over the temporary re-opening and the pursuit of expansion permits.</p><p>“Re-permitting keeps the door open for the future,” said board chairman Paul Kelley. “Zero waste is not going to happen within two years. There is no solution to this unless the cities commit their waste because we cannot finance anything at the landfill without it.”</p>