July 2003
Join Us for Our Tenth Annual Household Hazardous Waste Collection Events in September

We will be accepting household hazardous wastes for no charge at one-day collection events held throughout the County on September 20 and 21, 2003.

July 2003
Phase I Improvements Complete at the Avery Solid Waste Transfer Station

The Avery Transfer Station is being remodeled to relieve congestion and improve service. The first of three construction phases is now complete. Once all the work is done (fall 2004), the Station will have a second compactor unit, a separate entrance and exit, and additional room for recycling. The Station will remain open its usual hours throughout construction: Friday through Tuesday 9 am to 5:30 pm. For more information, download the most recent "Fact Sheet."

May 2003
Prevent Litter -- Secure Your Load

If you haul your own to the local transfer station, please follow these guidelines and be sure that you are not creating litter:

• All trash must be in a bag, a can or covered with a tarp.
• Fasten all trash cans lids with bungee cord or other means.
• Tie off trash bags and hold down with cargo net.

Thousands of your solid waste parcel fee dollars are spent cleaning up roadside litter each year. In effort to reduce trash along County roadways, motorists not following these guidelines will be required to purchase a tarp upon entering Rock Creek. It's simple ... no loose trash.

May 2003
Challenge Your Recycling Skills

Are you a Recycling Ranger or a just another greenhorn? Challenge your recycling skills by testing our new interactive educational program at www.RecyclingRoundUp.org. Whether you haul your own to the nearest transfer station or have curbside collection, you can challenge your recycling know-how. In the process, we hope that you learn a little bit more about recycling opportunities in Calaveras County. Recycling: It's everywhere, it's easy, and it makes a difference. click here to play!

March 2003
Scrap Lumber and Other Wood Waste is Now Accepted for Free at the Red Hill Yard Waste Collection Site and Wilseyville Transfer Station Annex.

Segregated or clean wood waste, including dimensional lumber, pallets and plywood, are now being accepted for free at the Red Hill Yard Waste Collection Site and the Wilseyville Transfer Station Annex. To be accepted, wood waste must be "clean," that is, free from paint or other coatings and no presssure treated lumber. Wood waste cannot be mixed with trash or other materials. No sheetrock, shingles, insulation, paper, plastic, or metal are allowed. Nails are OK, but be sure to remove any hardware or strapping.

Both sites are open four days per week (Friday through Monday) from 9 am to 5:30 pm . Click here for more information regarding hours and quantity limits.

April 2002
Permanent Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facility Now Open Everyday at Rock Creek!

You can now bring your household hazardous waste to Rock Creek any day of the week.

• Residents click here for more information.
• Businesses click here for more information

March 2003
Additional Hours Added to Red Hill and Wilseyville Yard Waste Collection Sites

Operations at the Red Hill and Wilseyville Wood/Yard Waste Collection Sites have been expanded (see above) and are now open four days per week (Friday through Monday) from 9 am to 5:30 pm. For more information, click here.

September 14th and 15th, 2002
Annual Household Hazardous Waste Collection Events

Public Works recently sponsored our ninth annual HHW collection events at six different locations throughout the County. A record 940 residents dropped off more than 50 tons of HHW at the event. We saw record participation in West Point, San Andreas, and Arnold with few if any delays.

In surveying the participants, we found that many people were still not aware of permanent facility at Rock Creek which is open seven days a week (see below).

February 2003
County Bans Commercial Use of Solid Waste Transfer Stations by Building Contractors

Effective March 15, 2003, building contractors will be prohibited from commercial use of County solid waste transfer stations. Disposal options now available to building contractors include the following: self-haul of mixed waste to Rock Creek; self-haul of clean, segregated wood to the Red Hill and Wilseyville Wood/Yard Waste Collection Sites, and debris box service through their local permitted hauler. Rock Creek accepts construction and demolition debris for a charge of $8 per cubic yard seven days a week from 8 am to 4:30 pm. For more information, click here.

September 2002
Avery Transfer Station now open on Tuesdays until site improvements are complete!

To help relieve congestion at the County's busiest transfer station, the Avery Transfer Station will now be open Tuesdays indefinitely until improvements are completed.

Hours of operation at the Avery Transfer Station are now Friday through Tuesday, 9:00 am to 5:30 pm. Hours of operation at the other five County transfer stations remain unchanged. Click here for more information.

October 2002
Solid Waste Task Force Recommends that County Accept Limited Quantities of Biosolids for Use as Daily Cover at Rock Creek Class II Landfill

At a Calaveras County Solid Waste Task Force meeting this past Wednesday, October 2, 2002, public comment was received on the agenda item regarding the acceptance of biosolids from City of Angels and Calaveras County Water District. Among those, were a number of questions and concerns posed by members of the Milton community who requested a written response. Public Works has prepared the requested response, which is available by clicking on the following link. Please note that the referenced attachments are not available in electronic format, but will be available in hard copy at the Public Works office on Monday.

Public Works' Response to Questions/Concerns regarding Biosolids

At an upcoming Calaveras County Board of Supervisors meeting (October 7), County Supervisors will consider limited acceptance of biosolids from City of Angels and Calaveras County Water District at the Rock Creek Solid Waste Facility. The biosolids that are being considered for acceptance at Rock Creek are a non-hazardous, dewatered byproduct of domestic wastewater treatment. Upon receipt, the biosolids have a nearly odorless, soil-like texture and will be used as daily cover within the lined Class II landfill. The Rock Creek Solid Waste Facility is a Class II landfill that is permitted to accept nonhazardous solid waste, including biosolids. The proposed practice is similar to the current use of biosolids from the San Andreas Sanitary District as daily cover.

Copies of the staff report, proposed Board resolutions, and Procedures for the Acceptance of Biosolids may be downloaded by clicking on the following links (files are in *.PDF format and you will need Acrobat Reader to view them):

1. Staff Report -- Acceptance of Biosolids at the Rock Creek Solid Waste Facility
2. Proposed Board Resolution Authorizing Acceptance of Biosolids from City of Angels
3. Proposed Board Resolution Authorizing Acceptance of Biosolids from CCWD
4. Attachment A. Summary of Community Issues
5. Attachment B. Procedures for Acceptance of Biosolids

Note that files are in *.PDF format and you will need Acrobat Reader (click here for free download) to view them.

The Solid Waste Task Force is scheduled to hear the matter prior to Board action on October 2, 2002 at 6 pm (Board Chambers, Government Center, San Andreas). If you have any comments or concerns regarding the Board's pending action and cannot attend either the Solid Waste Task Force or the Board of Supervisors meeting, please feel free to call the Public Works office at 754-6403, or email us at ccsw_web@co.calaveras.ca.us.

Status as of September 2001
Permitting CAM as a solid waste disposal facility

The California Asbestos Monofill, which is owned by Waste Management, Inc., the largest solid waste management firm in the U.S., has been working since 1996 to get the permits that will allow them to bury tires at its facility in Copperopolis. CAM has yet to receive the permits needed to allow its proposed operation and, at this point, it is difficult to predict if or when it might get the necessary permits.

What is frequently viewed as a cumbersome permitting process for such land uses has been made all the more difficult by a state agency, the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB), which has been changing its “rules of the game.” Back in 1998, CIWMB had issued a temporary one-year “stipulated provisional permit” allowing tire disposal at CAM. During the term of the temporary permit, CIWMB had planned to develop regulations for waste tire monofills, such as CAM. However, that never happened and State regulations governing the design, operation, and closure of a waste tire monofill have never been promulgated. Therefore, the only permitting avenue available to CAM which would allow it to operate as a waste tire monofill, is a “solid waste facilities permit.”

The decision whether or not to issue a solid waste facilities permit rests with the Calaveras County Department of Environmental Health, which is the designated “local enforcement agency” or “LEA.” The permit process is typically initiated by the submittal of a permit application by the project proponent. In August 2000, CAM submitted an administrative draft of its permit application to the LEA and to CIWMB for review and comment by these agencies prior to submittal of the actual permit application which will trigger the permit review process. The administrative draft of the permit application included a 19-volume support document referred to as the “Joint Technical Document” or “JTD.” As part of the permit application and before the LEA can consider issuing a solid waste facilities permit, CAM must show that it has satisfied the requirements of all other permits, regulations, and local requirements. To this end, CAM must show, among other things, that it is identified in the Countywide Siting Element as a solid waste disposal facility, that it has an up-to-date “Conditional Use Permit” issued by the Planning Commission, and that it has completed appropriate environmental review.

To start the process, CAM applied for an amendment to the Countywide Siting Element. The local Solid Waste Task Force met on January 9, 2001 to review and comment on a proposed Amendment to the Countywide Siting Element, which would identify CAM as a solid waste disposal facility. During that meeting, the Solid Waste Task Force heard extensive public comment expressing concern about potential environmental impacts resulting from tire disposal at CAM and requesting additional environmental review. Understanding that the Task Force serves in an advisory role to the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors, it had no discretionary authority to approve or to disapprove the Amendment. In this regard, the Task Force found no basis for recommending disapproval of the proposed Amendment. The Task Force recommended that the permitting process continue and that the Board of Supervisors consider the Amendment only after appropriate environmental review had been completed. The Task Force will be forwarding its comments to the City of Angels, Calaveras County Board of Supervisors, and the California Integrated Waste Management Board in the next week. Before the proposed Amendment to the Countywide Siting Element becomes official, it must be approved by each of these bodies.

As is typical for projects of this type, environmental review will be completed by an independent consultant under the direction of the Calaveras County Planning Department and paid for by the project applicant. The first step in the environmental review will be the preparation of a “project description.” As its name implies, the project description will identify “the proposed activities that may cause either a direct physical change in the environment or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.” The project description is an important document and will be used to determine the nature and scope of the environmental review. The project applicant is currently working on the project description and a draft submittal is anticipated in the coming weeks. An Initial Study will be prepared to determine what environmental documents will be prepared. Options include a mitigated negative declaration, a Subsequent Environmental Impact Report, and Addendum to the previous Environmental Impact Report or a new Environmental Impact Report. Depending on what is required, it could take as long as a year to notice, prepare, circulate, finalize, and certify the environmental document. That year would include a 30- to 60-day public review period.

If the environmental document is approved by either the Planning Commission or the Board of Supervisors after public review and comment, and if the amendment to the Countywide Siting Element is approved by the Board of Supervisors, and if all necessary changes to the Conditional Use Permit are approved by the Planning Commission, then the solid waste facilities permit application could be deemed complete by the LEA. The LEA will then have 120 days to consider the conditions for approval or disapproval of the permit application.