Proposal would bring 5 million tons of waste to Ostrom landfill
Yuba County could eventually be getting the trash San Francisco can't do anything else with, depending on a decision expected later this year by that county's Board of Supervisors.
Recology, a San Francisco-based company formerly known as NorCalWaste, is bidding for a contract that would include taking about 5 million tons of San Francisco trash to the landfill on Ostrom Road east of Wheatland, beginning in 2015.
If Recology gets the contract, it would mean an additional $1.75 million for Yuba County coffers in host fees, and new jobs at the landfill to handle the additional waste.
But it would also mean the county would get thousands of tons of trash San Francisco can't or won't recycle or compost.
At full weight, as much as 400,000 tons of waste would be delivered annually over 12 to 13 years.
Adam Alberti, a spokesman for Recology, said Yuba County residents shouldn't see it as being a literal dumping ground for the worst of the worst refuse from San Francisco.
"You can expect as the years go on for there to be less and less materials sent to the landfill," Alberti said, describing how San Francisco leaders hope to eliminate landfill waste from their city completely by 2020. "The goal is to get there, but the reality is that it's not there yet." Recology's local subsidiary, Yuba-Sutter Disposal Inc., operates the Ostrom Road landfill and has the franchise to pick up garbage in Yuba and Sutter counties. The landfill site covers 261 acres, of which 225 acres are permitted as a Class II Landfill. It opened in 1995.
Recology is competing with the existing contract holder, Waste Management, for a contract set to expire in 2014.
Both companies have submitted bids to the city and went through interviews this week with a panel that will make the final recommendation by the end of August on which company supervisors should select.
David Assmann, deputy director of San Francisco's Department of the Environment, said that will be followed by supervisor hearings, and a formal awarding of the contract either late this year or in early 2010.
San Francisco has already significantly reduced how much trash it sends to landfills in recent years, down to 467,000 tons last year from 690,000 tons in 2001, Assmann said.
What's left, and what Yuba County would get if Recology gets the contract, is mostly items made of composite materials harder to recycle, and some plastics, Assmann said.
But a significant percentage of the city's landfill trash is material that could be recycled or composted but hasn't been to date, he added.
Waste Management's proposal calls for the trash to be taken by truck to a landfill in the Altamont hills in eastern Alameda County. Alberti said his company would send the trash to Yuba County by rail, giving Recology's bid more sway on the side of being less polluting.
"The Altamont landfill is considerably closer, but it's only accessible by long-haul trucking that clogs up the freeway and dirties the air," Alberti said. He acknowledged that rail out of San Francisco only goes south, so it's not clear how the city's trash would eventually make its way by train to Yuba County.
Assmann, with San Francisco, said city staff are finishing a study to consider the clean-air impacts from both proposals.
Yuba County Supervisor John Nicoletti said Ostrom Road's landfill was permitted to handle more trash than it currently takes in, so San Francisco garbage wouldn't be too big of a problem.
"It'll definitely have an impact on the life cycle of the landfill," he said. "If it was permitted and planned to go 60 years, it might go down to 40 years if this goes through."
Keith Martin, administrator for the regional waste management authority that represents the agencies dumping trash at Ostrom Road now, noted the landfill's operators wouldn't have agreed provisionally to accept garbage from San Francisco if the excess capacity wasn't available.
"Yuba County some years ago permitted an expansion of the landfill to bring additional waste and therefore money in the tonnage fee," he said.
The landfill has an expected closure date of 2066 with a total design capacity of more than 41 million cubic yards, according to its Web site.
Wheatland Mayor Enita Elphick, whose town is closest to the landfill, questions the idea.
"The rail comes right through Wheatland, and that becomes a safety issue," she said. "I'm very concerned about it."
Under Yuba County's host fee that charges $4.40 for every ton of trash brought to the Ostrom Road landfill, the county could garner millions of dollars a year. If San Francisco brought 400,000 tons of trash, for example, that would equal about $1.76 million for the county.
Nicoletti said that money would primarily be spent on addressing impacts from the increased trash deposits at the landfill. But Elphick said Wheatland isn't getting that fee, so she's less assuaged by that perspective.
"I think we need to remember that immediate revenues sometimes don't offset the long-term impacts from something like this," she said.
Alberti said Recology would also develop a compost facility at the landfill to process food scraps from San Francisco for use in local crops That and the need for added workers at the existing landfill would boost the overall workforce at the Ostrom Road site by 25 percent, he said.
Alberti would not disclose the dollar amount of Recology's bid for San Francisco garbage service. Assmann said the value of the contract would be based on the fees paid to local landfills and jurisdictions, and the cost of transporting the waste itself.
The landfill already accepts some trash from outside the area, including from Butte, Colusa and Nevada counties. According to a Web site for the landfill, it can handle about 3,000 tons of solid city waste per day.
Martin said because the landfill is operated separately, his members have no say in whether it accepts additional trash from elsewhere.
But if Recology gets a contract with San Francisco at less than what current member jurisdictions pay, he said, that would result in lower rates for other those jurisdictions, and possible savings for their customers.
Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ben van der Meer at 749-4709 or bvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com.
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