For the past several years, Siskiyou
County has been in the process of closing its landfills. This has been in response to
environmental regulations nationwide enacted to protect groundwater and public health from
the affects of solid waste. Active landfills are required to be lined and drains installed
to prevent leachate (putrefied waste and toxins) from migrating offsite or into
groundwater. Monitoring wells are drilled to check any migration of waste. Garbage must be
covered every day. This is a very expensive operation. A lined facility must have a very
large stream of waste in order to offset the modern costs of operation and compliance.
Landfills that are closed are first cleaned up to ensure all garbage
is in one place. This is then capped with heavy clay and materials to prevent air and
animals from reaching the waste. Drains and monitoring wells are installed. Siskiyou County
began the process of closing landfills quite some time ago. Fees were put in place to set
aside money over the life of the landfill to pay for closure, but there have been so many
landfills, leachate issues, regulatory pressures and fines that closure plans have been
accelerated. There has not been enough “saved” in fees to cover the costs.
As Siskiyou County residents are scattered throughout the county, so
were our landfills. It was necessary to regionalize waste collection. This is now done at
several “transfer stations.” These are buildings with roofs and an open side for
dumping. Commercial and individual customers dump their waste in large concrete holding
areas. The waste is then gathered, compressed and shipped by truck north or south to a
lined landfill. Siskiyou County owns a modern transfer station at Black Butte, which it
constructed a couple of years ago. Operation of the station is contracted out. The
contractor collects and keeps the gate fees and pays Siskiyou County a contracted amount
to be able to run the facility.
At the beginning of this fiscal year, the sanitation budget was at
negative $2,068,154 – borrowed over the years to close the various landfills and
build transfer stations. Revenues received this year through parcel/gate fees and
contracted transfer station operation payments were $2,321,981. Expenditures were
$2,043,236. This has paid down the cumulative debt to $1,789,409.
The last remaining open landfill is in Yreka. It has been jointly
owned by Siskiyou County and the City of Yreka for more than 30 years. It has been
operated by the City of Yreka, with the City and County paying their proportionate shares
of operation and maintenance costs.
Years back the Regional Water Quality Control Board sued because of
violations. An unlined cell had been opened which they felt was not “grandfathered”
from regulation, a small watercourse had been allegedly altered, sewage had been dumped
onsite, there was evidence of leachate migration. Siskiyou County and the City of Yreka
have proceeded through a full blown Environmental Impact Report posing mitigations to
various problems in order to extend their permit to operate. Because of all the problems
and liabilities over the years, the County has wanted to close the landfill and build a
transfer station similar to the Black Butte operation.
The County has been in negotiations with the City during the past
three years. In July, we issued a “Notice of Withdrawal” to the City from our
1971 partnership agreement stating the amount that we would agree to either buy or sell to
the City. The appraisal determined the value of the property to be a negative 7 million
dollars. (This is because of closure costs and liabilities.) The City has agreed to sell
the facility to the County for its half ($3.5 million,) with terms of $1 million down and
$175,000 per year for twenty five years. The County has agreed to continue to operate a
solid waste collection facility (plans for a transfer station) at that site and not to
charge Yreka City residents any differently than County residents.
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