Tag: compost

Author SuzannePosted on Categories Land Use, Sustainable Living, WaterTags , , , Leave a comment on Shutdown of Sonoma County's compost facility averted

Shutdown of Sonoma County's compost facility averted

Kevin McCallum, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

A shutdown of the composting facility at Sonoma County’s central landfill was averted Wednesday when the public agency in charge of the program voted to continue trying to find a way to solve the water pollution problems plaguing the site.

The alternative facing the 10-member board of the Sonoma County Waste Management Agency was to begin winding down operations before the rainy season and start hauling to other counties the 100,000 tons of yard waste and food scraps collected from residents’ bins every year.

“Do we want to just stop and say, ‘No — no more compost at this point and 100 percent out-haul’?” asked Healdsburg Mayor Jim Wood, the board chairman. “Or do we want to continue working on a plan?”

He said efforts by the agency’s staff and others to find a solution had been “extraordinary” and he felt the work should be allowed to go on. State water quality regulators have tentatively endorsed a plan aimed at minimizing wastewater in the short term while efforts to find a new site for the operation move forward.

via Shutdown of Sonoma County's compost facility averted | The Press Democrat.

Author SuzannePosted on Categories Land Use, Sustainable Living, WaterTags , , , Leave a comment on Sonoma County composting program faces uncertain future

Sonoma County composting program faces uncertain future

Kevin McCallum, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Sonoma County’s 21-year-old composting program could be scrapped if water quality regulators don’t back off a threat to impose stiff fines for runoff that has been fouling a creek near the county’s central landfill for years.

The composting operation, which sits atop the landfill but operates independently, has until Oct. 1 to clean up its act or face millions in penalties in the event a major storm overwhelms the undersized storage ponds at the 25-acre site.

But Sonoma County Waste Management Agency officials say their solution — construction of a massive stormwater holding pond at the north end of the Mecham Road landfill — can’t possibly be designed, permitted and built by October. They say they need relief from the proposed deadline and fines before they can move forward.

If regulators don’t give them either, they warn they may have to shut down the composting operation and begin hauling yard waste out of the county, much like the county did with its garbage when the central landfill was closed by regulators in 2005.

via Sonoma County composting program faces uncertain future | Petaluma360.com | Petaluma Argus-Courier | Petaluma, CA.