Other no-brainers at Redwood Landfill

By Christopher Gilkerson
Wednesday, December 5, 2007 1:31 PM PST
The Advance’s editorial last week opined that it is a “no-brainer” for the Redwood Landfill, just north of Novato owned by the global giant Waste Management Inc. (WMI), to generate electricity from the harmful methane gas its business emits from the rotting garbage that’s been there for years. The Green Coalition agrees, and encourages WMI to start taking action immediately. But here are five other equally significant no-brainers to clean-up the waste in Marin.

• First, ban the dumping of green, organic and food waste that is responsible for creating all that methane gas — 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to global warming. Most yard waste is not composted. Instead, it is added to the garbage at the dump as “erosion control” or daily cover. Many cities, states and countries ban that practice. The environmentally sound approach is to divert green materials to a dedicated digester facility that can more cleanly and efficiently produce both compost and energy. The Green Coalition has asked Marin County and WMI to plan such a facility.

• Second, the landfill should be converted into a resource recovery park, where the last resort is burying materials as “waste.” In Monterey and Berkeley, for example, they go far beyond recycling and focus on reduction, reuse and recovery, which are far better for the environment than recycling. These environmental parks co-locate and promote small businesses as tenants and include salvage, building material and hardware exchanges, and “last chance” stores. They save landfill space and resources while creating green jobs in partnership with local businesses. The Green Coalition has proposed a feasibility study for the Redwood Landfill site, and we’ve asked the county and WMI to cooperate on this vision.

• Third, to truly partner with the public and allay environmental concerns, WMI should agree to an independent monitor of the Redwood site who reports to the community (as in Alameda County). Despite WMI’s recent PR attempts to clean up its image, garbage can be a dirty business. Just last week, WMI was fined $1 million for repeatedly violating California emission laws with its garbage trucks. Another recent example is the rotting garbage in Oakland neighborhoods this past summer due to WMI’s lock-out of workers. We need an independent monitor to supplement the minimal state-required testing given the sensitive wetlands location of the landfill and the fact that most trucks are not inspected for hazardous materials.

• Fourth, a mitigation fee per ton of material that WMI buries instead of diverts should be adopted by the County. It could pay for the independent monitor, create the infrastructure for the green compost and energy facility, and implement a resource recovery park and other zero-waste measures. The fee would also discourage out-of-county-waste that is now shipped into Novato. It might cost you another 50 cents a month on your garbage bill, but it will pay dividends in the long run. Or even the short run: one authoritative estimate is that Redwood landfill capacity will be reached in just eight years. Then we’ll have to rely on reduce and reuse strategies instead of burying our castoffs.

• Fifth, establish long-term fiscal responsibility for future leaks and failures after the landfill closes, so taxpayers don’t have to pick up a multi-million dollar cleanup tab. Redwood Landfill sits on wetlands between faults in a floodplain that drains into the Petaluma River and the bay. So our concerns focus on the seismic, flood, sea-level-rise, and groundwater risks of the 166-foot mountain of garbage WMI is amassing. For more information about the risks, including Google Earth maps, go to www.noexpansion.org.

Our county government must act now and secure commitments from WMI while it has a chance. Pending before the county is WMI’s request to expand its permitted capacity by about 35 percent and make other operational changes. It would be foolish to approve the expansion and then expect WMI to agree to all of the “no-brainers” when it doesn’t have any incentive. Without binding commitments from WMI before any expansion, they could walk away in a few years and say, “Your problem now, Marin.”

The Green Coalition — including Sustainable Novato, Sierra Club and 20 other organizations — is eager to work with all parties. In fact, we have met with WMI’s manager at the landfill about these issues and are still hoping for a constructive reply.

Supervisor Judy Arnold has lent an informed and sympathetic ear. Last year, the supervisors promised a waste issues workshop for everyone to learn more. The workshop should include WMI, local groups and outside experts. The supervisors originally promised to convene the workshop before the hearing on the landfill expansion takes place at the Marin Planning Commission, now expected in February. Call Supervisor Arnold at 499-7331 to give her your views on these no-brainers.

Christopher Gilkerson is the director of the Green Coalition for Responsible Waste /Resource Management.

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