Newly surfaced documents detail previously downplayed extent of contamination, hazards at Napa County landfill

Recently surfaced public records shed new light into safety hazards and contamination at the Clover Flat Landfill in Napa County, describing incinerated infrastructure and severe damage to streambeds and waterways.

The landfill, now owned by Waste Connections, one of the nation’s largest waste management companies, was run for decades as Upper Valley Disposal Service by the local Pestoni family before they sold in 2022.

Neighbors and environmental advocates, as well as former St. Helena Mayor Geoff Ellsworth and, more recently, former employees, have raised concerns about fires, unsafe conditions and contamination at the landfill that sits in the Napa Valley hills near Calistoga. The string of incidents led to questions about the former owners’ long-term exclusive contracts with the county.

The landfill’s contract was put in jeopardy in 2019 after a public reckoning over a series of violations. But advocates say they feel they often haven’t been given the full story, despite assurances of remediation and the landfill’s oversight by multiple local and state agencies, including the Upper Valley Waste Management Agency, the San Francisco Bay Water Board and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife among others.

The 2020 Glass Fire heightened worries about risks at the landfill given the increasing wildfire threat in the area. A county inspection Sept. 28, while the fire was raging, reportedly found the facility was “severely damaged,” but noted “the operator has quickly mobilized” to contain any problems.

A county email sent the same day — which was released through the public records dump — added further insight about the inspection.

“Currently landfill gas is burning uncontrolled from numerous damaged gas wells on the site and leachate collection pipes are non-existent but fortunately leachate is burning off instead of flowing downslope.”

Leachate is water that has been contaminated with chemicals and metals after mixing with garbage.

Still, not long after, Christy Pestoni, former chief operating officer for Upper Valley Disposal Service, described minimal damage, according to an Oct. 6, 2020 article in the St. Helena Star, noting no damage to gas wells. Pestoni now works as part of Waste Connections’ local operations team as director of government affairs.

In a 2022 statement to The Press Democrat, Pestoni, while COO, downplayed any impact.

“The Glass Fire started in an unincorporated area of St. Helena several miles from the Clover Flat site,” she said. “The Glass Fire did burn toward the landfill, but CalFire was onsite when the fire reached the property to assist our facility, and there were no reports of any methane explosions.”

But an email from a management consultant for the landfill sent Oct. 14, 2020, to county staff and state regulators described a “complete incineration of the entire erosion, sedimentation and storm water control measures” at the facility.

As a result, Clover Flat Landfill requested financial assistance under the Emergency Watershed Protection Program to rebuild its infrastructure, calling it “vitally important” to “fully restore them to pre-fire conditions in the next 60 days” before the start of the impending wet weather season.

A complaint submitted in December to the California Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies by former and current workers of the landfill described unsafe conditions in the aftermath of the Glass Fire. Among other allegations, it claimed a crew was directed to undertake “fire suppression for hot-spot fires with untreated leachate wastewater” and was “felling still burning trees, running heavy chainsaws, wood chipping, hauling” all without “training or proper safety equipment in compromised air quality due to the ongoing fires in the area and impacts to the landfill facility.”

Neither Pestoni nor the landfill’s new owner, Waste Connections, responded to requests for comment.

More details on waterway damage

A May 2020 California Department of Fish and Wildlife report on Clover Flat Landfill waste discharge was also released through the public records request. It detailed contaminated runoff from the landfill that reached reached tributaries of the the Napa River in March 2019.

While the incident was made public, the report provides additional information about damage to the area, as well as restoration recommendations, that five years later may still be pending.

At the time, the Napa County District Attorney’s Office and California Department of Fish and Wildlife undertook a joint investigation. The landfill temporarily closed following the discharge. The incident caused considerable public outcry and official scrutiny, resulting in discipline that included a franchise agreement default notice and $619,400 settlement between the San Francisco Bay Water Board and the landfill, along with mandated corrective actions.

The landfill has said it corrected the water contamination issues in cooperation the regional Water Board and the California Fish and Wildlife Department.

The Fish and Wildlife assessment details “large amounts of earth waste spoils, leachate, litter, and sediment that were allowed to enter the streams.”

The report listed the many wildlife species that rely on the Napa River and tributaries for habitat. “Prior to illegal landfill releases,” one 1,243-foot stretch “was considered to have 90% of the resource services of an unimpaired stream,” the assessment said in one example of observed damage. Resource services are the benefits a natural resource provides to other living things around it.

After the discharge, according to the report, “changes in water and sediment resulted in a nearly complete loss of the baseline services.”

The assessment laid out several restoration projects to pursue. All told, the agency concluded “the public should be compensated for the injuries to 1.57 acres of riparian oak woodland habitat and 1.61 miles (8,503.44 feet) of in-stream habitat.” The agency estimated $890,220 in compensatory damages to cover the costs of restoration.

The Napa County District Attorney’s Office confirmed there is an open investigation related to the Fish and Wildlife assessment though could not provide details because the case is ongoing.

DA’s Office spokesperson Carlos Villatoro could not say whether the recommended remediation has taken place. But, he said, “in general terms, if the case is litigated, then remediation most likely would not occur until after the court rules in our favor and orders the defendant to complete remediation.”

If a settlement is reached, the defendant “often begins the process of remediation before.” Eventual remediation, if it is ordered or agreed upon, could be based on the initial report or other evidence gathered in the investigation, he said.

For Ellsworth, the need for continued scrutiny into incidents years past is that without a full picture or understanding the full scope of impacts, it’s hard to know whether appropriate action was taken or will be in the future.

“This stuff goes away even though it’s never been resolved,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Marisa Endicott can be reached at 707-521-5470 or marisa.endicott@pressdemocrat.com. On X (formerly Twitter) @InYourCornerTPD and Facebook @InYourCornerTPD.