Groundwater, garbage, and oak trees—all three were major topics of concern at a public meeting on the potential Los Flores Ranch integrated waste management facility on July 23.
About 30 community members and city staffers met at the Santa Maria Public Library to review and comment on a draft environmental impact report for the project, which proposes construction of a waste disposal site on approximately 600 acres in the Solomon Hills off of Highway 101. The property also features an open space recreation area.
Santa Maria leaders currently see Los Flores Ranch as the most favorable site for the facility. If approved, the Los Flores site would replace the current waste facility, located on East Main Street, as the city’s main landfill. The new site is estimated to have a 90-year capacity for waste disposal.
According to city documents, the city needs the project so it can phase out use of the existing Santa Maria Regional Landfill, slated for closure in 2012.
Some locals, however, are unhappy with the city’s selection of the site, and voiced their concerns at the meeting.
Several people questioned whether or not the city’s groundwater supply would be properly protected should a leak happen. And some attendees added that the landfill should be built on a site that doesn’t have a groundwater underneath it.
“[The watershed] should be the most important consideration for the site,” said former Santa Barbara County Supervisor Toru Miyoshi.
City staffers, however, said the water source would be protected by the landfill design, which includes synthetic liners, layers of clay and coal, and a leakage detection system, complete with alarm and collection systems.
Along with the watershed, people commented on a clause in the project that calls for the removal of 3,200 mature coast live oak trees, a move listed in the draft report as a “significant and unavoidable” impact.
In an attempt to mitigate the impact, the city will plant two replacement oak trees for every one removed. The city plans to monitor the trees for seven years, replacing any that fail to thrive.
Local resident Lillian Smith requested that wording in the report be corrected so the city would be mandated to replace the removed oak trees.
Other “significant but unavoidable” impacts of the project include air contaminant emissions that exceed the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District criteria and the generation of other pollutants, such as equipment exhaust and methane.
The city’s making sure measures will be taken to reduce construction-related emissions, as well as implement a dust-control program. However, some of the pollutant emissions would be difficult to reduce.
“A landfill’s a landfill,” said planning manager Richard Dalton of Rincon Consultants, Inc. “It has to operate in a certain way.”
Dalton said the California Environmental Quality Act allows governing officials to accept some negative environmental impacts “if the positive aspects outweigh the negative considerations.”
Other questions brought up by the public had to do with how the proposed facility would operate. In response to concerns about traffic, Santa Maria Utilities Director Rick Sweet said only waste management vehicles would be allowed to deposit waste on the property.
“There won’t be people coming to the facility to clean out their garage,” Sweet said.’
Members of the public, he explained, will have to take their garbage to the current landfill to be transported by the city to the new site.
Expanding on that, members of the public asked if out-of-region entities could also bring their waste to the site, referencing the transportation of sand from Long Beach to the current Santa Maria Regional Landfill.
Some members of the public claimed the sand is toxic and has no business being in either landfill, past or present.
However, utilities engineer Steve Kahn assured the public that all of the materials going into the waste facilities are tested for toxicity levels. And Kahn said high trucking costs would greatly deter the transportation of out-of-area waste and materials.
He encouraged all community members to submit their questions and comments in writing to the city, which would address them in the final environmental impact report.
A completed report and approval from several environmental agencies, among other things, must be received to move forward with the project. m
Contact News Editor Amy Asman at aasman @santamariasun.com..
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 6, 2009.