Dirty Dozen Facts
About Redwood Landfill
“Dirty Dozen” Facts about the Redwood Landfill
1. Owners Want Approval to Turn Redwood Landfill into a Large Regional Dump.
2. Landfill Expansion Will Increase Big Truck Congestion and Pollution on Highway 101.
3. Located in a Highly Sensitive Ecosystem.
4. Not Located in an Isolated “Waste Lands.”
5. Run by a Huge Corporation with a Checkered Past whose Motive is Profit.
6. Expansion Means an Even Steeper Mountain of Garbage – Increasing Risk for Possible Slumping Failure.
7. Landfill Expansion Will Not Meet Local Needs.
8. Landfill Expansion Is Not a Long-Term Solution to the Looming Solid Waste Crisis.
9. The Landfill’s Plan Will Result in Dozens of Substantial Negative Environmental Impacts, some of which will be Unavoidable.
10. Expansion Will Have Unknown Cumulative Effects on Human Health.
11. Risky and Inadequate Design – Absence of a Liner, and Incomplete Leachate Collection System.
12. Landfill Is Already in Violation of Existing Permit – Can it Be Trusted?
1. Owners Want Approval to Turn Redwood Landfill into a Large Regional Dump.
As stated in the draft Environmental Impact Report (“EIR”), the corporate owners intend to transform the Redwood Landfill into a regional waste facility. They have asked to substantially increase the landfill’s permitted capacity, increase the daily intake of waste by 52%, and accept the “solid waste disposal and composting needs of jurisdictions” well beyond Marin and Sonoma Counties. The Landfill’s original application even went so far as to include a plan to receive semi-hazardous materials for the first time. As a result of public outcry, the Landfill has backed-off that plan, but now wants to include for the first time up to 800 tons per day of petroleum contaminated soil.
2. Landfill Expansion Will Increase Big Truck Congestion and Pollution on Highway 101.
If the Landfill has its way with its expansion permit application, there will be over 1,380 vehicle trips in and out of the Landfill every day – a 66% increase. That’s a substantial increase in truck-polluting traffic on Highway 101 for all of us to deal with. According to the draft EIR, “[i]t is likely that many of the additional vehicle trips will consist of large trucks hauling waste and other materials from outside Marin County.”
3. Located in a Highly Sensitive Ecosystem.
The Redwood Landfill is located immediately adjacent to the San Antonio Creek and the Petaluma Marsh, near the Petaluma River, in close proximity to major earthquake fault lines in a flood plain. It is the last of its breed: an old dump site located on historic Bay lands. With today’s enlightened awareness and environmental standards, it would be unthinkable for government and the public to approve a new solid waste facility where the Redwood Landfill sits today. Any water pollution or toxins that would escape from the Landfill, due to its collapse, a failure of its control systems, a flood, or an earthquake, would leach into San Antonio Creek and spread through the marsh and ultimately seep into the Petaluma River and the San Francisco Bay. The members of NWLE have therefore asked, “Why would any expansion make sense?” [Map of Landfill]
4. Not Located in an Isolated “Waste Lands.”
Contrary to what the owners of the Redwood Landfill would have you believe, the Petaluma River estuary and marsh adjacent to the Landfill is not a “waste lands.” In fact, the Petaluma Marsh is a unique environmental treasure of the San Francisco Bay area with wildlife and plant life that has tremendous untapped potential for education and recreation. The increased risks of air and water pollution, not to mention the smell and unsightliness of the Landfill’s operation including excavation of an entire hillside for waste cover, threaten this public resource. [Information About Marsh]
5. Run by a Huge Corporation with a Checkered Past whose Motive is Profit.
Originally, the “Novato Dump” was a small locally owned enterprise. Today, however, Redwood Landfill is one of literally hundreds of subsidiary companies owned and controlled by Waste Management, Inc., the largest operator of landfills in the world. It is also one of the biggest corporations in the world, listed as number 170 in the Fortune 500. Waste Management owns or operates some 290 landfills and had $11.5 billion in sales in 2003. (Source: Hoovers Online) Waste Management has a long history of environmental transgressions and corporate scandals, and has faced intense local opposition to expansion plans in other communities. For more information, go to http://www.ebic.org/pubs/wmx.html
6. Expansion Means an Even Steeper Mountain of Garbage – Increasing Risk for Possible Slumping Failure.
Redwood “Landfill” is a misnomer. It is actually a giant mountain of garbage. To become a regional dump and process 540 large waste trucks a day, the Landfill must create an even steeper mountain of garbage next to the environmentally sensitive marsh lands. The Landfill is asking to increase greatly (from 4:1 to 3:1) the steepness of the Landfill’s slope to enable it to reach the maximum height of 160 feet! According to the draft EIR, “[t]he proposed changes to the landfill’s contours will result in a steeper-sided, more massive fill structure.” The Landfill’s antiquated design is similar to that of a landfill in Contra Costa County in Martinez that failed in a slide a number of years ago, causing significant environmental problems and costly litigation.
7. Landfill Expansion Will Not Meet Local Needs.
The City of Novato expressed its opposition to the expansion plan in its letter commenting on the draft EIR last year. More broadly, according to the latest information available from the California Integrated Waste Management Board, only 50% of the waste processed in Marin County comes from Marin County. Despite all of its focus on nature and the environment, Marin County is in the garbage importation business and the Redwood Landfill is the major operator. With Marin County’s flat population projection and its ever-expanding waste diversion and recycling programs, the local community’s reliance on the Redwood Landfill is decreasing over time. But even today just a part of the Landfill’s waste comes from Novato and the surrounding communities. This is demonstrated by the fact that the Redwood Landfill recently won new contracts to divert a large percentage of Sonoma County’s solid waste to the Redwood Landfill by undercutting the fees of Sonoma County’s locally owned and operated landfill. The Redwood Landfill expansion will only serve the needs of Waste Management Inc.’s corporate coffers, not the local community.
8. Landfill Expansion Is Not a Long-Term Solution to the Looming Solid Waste Crisis.
Some people have asked, “If the Redwood Landfill doesn’t get its expansion, where will our trash go tomorrow?” Looking to the Redwood Landfill to answer our long-term solid waste processing dilemma is shortsighted, because it is fast nearing capacity with or without expansion. Life expectancy of a landfill is calculated according to waste volume. The draft EIR was unable to calculate with any precision the current volume at the Redwood Landfill, so it is not clear whether the current life expectancy projection of 2016 is accurate. The Landfill’s proposal to expand operations would only increase its life by 8 years. Because the Landfill’s intent is to create a regional dump, that will be 8 more years of importing garbage from other communities. No Wetlands Landfill Expansion believes that the responsibility to answer questions about the future rests with our local government agencies which need to include solid waste management as a fundamental element of county and local planning, including contingency planning, closure and abatement planning, and studying and considering alternative technologies and site locations.
9. The Landfill’s Plan Will Result in Dozens of Substantial Negative Environmental Impacts, some of which will be Unavoidable.
The draft EIR identified 77 adverse environmental impacts that could result from the Redwood Landfill’s expansion plan, 55 of which are significant or potentially significant, and 5 of which would be unavoidable even after the multiple mitigation measures the County has requested but the Landfill is resisting. For example, the draft EIR states that no possible mitigation measures would uphold air quality standards and goals, and the resulting negative impact to air quality would be an “unavoidable consequence of the project approval.” The sad truth is that the negative impacts of the Landfill in terms of danger to the surrounding marsh lands and communities may be fully realized only after it closes and its owners are long gone.
10. Expansion Will Have Unknown Cumulative Effects on Human Health.
The draft EIR states that the expansion plan “could potentially result in increased exposure of people to toxic air contaminants,” and “would result in a substantial increase in the emissions of toxic air contaminants, with consequent effects on human health.” One environmental watchdog group, Northern California River Watch, sued Waste Management, Inc. last year, alleging that the Redwood Landfill’s operations have resulted in the improper release of hazardous materials into surrounding groundwater, “posing an imminent risk to human health and the environment.”
11. Risky and Inadequate Design – Absence of a Liner, and Incomplete Leachate Collection System.
The Redwood Landfill was built without a liner that would assure separation of the waste from the groundwater. This is a critical omission from responsible landfill design, as the pressure of thousands of tons of waste resulting in compaction may lead to groundwater contamination without a liner and adequate separation. According to the draft EIR, the Landfill has stated that it would be “too expensive” to comply with state law that requires a five foot separation between refuse and groundwater. In fact, today in some places there is only two feet of separation. The Landfill also does not have a complete Leachate Collection System surrounding the site to contain waste water run-off. The Regional Water Quality Control Board has raised this as a significant and persistent concern. To learn more about how landfills work go to http://www.ejnet.org/landfills/
12. Landfill Is Already in Violation of Existing Permit – Can it Be Trusted?
The Redwood Landfill is not in compliance with its current permit. For example, there is an 11-acre portion of the site that is part of an illegal dump that, according to the draft EIR, has “potential for significant environmental impacts to water quality and public safety.” No Wetlands Landfill Expansion asks, “How can we trust the Landfill’s owners to abide by any new conditions if its expansion permit is approved, when we couldn’t trust it to stay within the current restrictions?”