Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 11am, Supervisor's Chambers, Sonoma County Administration Building; Speak up: contact each of the Supervisors; ask your City Council members to speak at the meeting; attend the meeting; invite your friends, neighbors and coworkers to contact their city council and attend the meeting: Post a sign in your yard or on your vehicle or bike; Post a comment here!
Yesterday afternoon, the Board of Supervisors held a public hearing on selling the Sonoma County solid waste system to Republic Services of Arizona. After more then 3 hours of very pertinent public testimony, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors unanimously directed staff to address a handful of important wording clarification issues and put the divestiture decision on the next meetings consent calendar. Please educate yourself on this matter, read the related entries and links listed below under Zero Waste, http://livinggreen.blogs.pressdemocrat.com/category/zero-waste/, and contact your supervisor and city councils asap.
Climate Protection Campaign, Sierra Club – Redwood Chapter, Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy, Sonoma Ecology Center, Sonoma County Conservation Action, Sonoma County GoLocal Cooperative, LITE Initiatives and Accountable Development Coalition recommend that the Board and cities reject the proposed Purchase and Sale Agreement with Republic Services for the Central Landfill because the deal undermines this community’s long term environmental and economic goals. Selling the solid waste system would permanently transfer an irreplaceable asset from public to corporate ownership. The proposed contract could increase costs to residents and thwart this community’s ability to meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets. It would also remove options for the future and diminish this Board’s reputation and legacy. Many of our reasons to oppose divestiture are aimed at the proposed Agreement’s financial weaknesses because long term economic goals align with a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Here is some additional reading on the planned sale of Central Landfill and its consequences: The Bohemian -09/09/09, Sierra Club Needles - 08/09, KRCB - 03/30/09, The Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy - 03/30/09 and Sonoma West Times and News - 04/01/09...
Every day 1,000 tons of garbage is deposited at the Redwood Landfill in north Novato. According to Redwood Landfill’s District Manager Jessica Jones, the landfill will be filled to its current capacity ” 26 million cubic yards ” by 2025. Though it is only filled to 17 million cubic yards right now, the rate of disposal has skyrocketed since the landfill was founded in 1958, said Jones. Marin County generates the most garbage per capita of any county in the country, she said. “We’re not closing the loop,” said Jones. With recycling, reusing and rotting (composting), many people believe that garbage can be returned to the earth or to its simplest form to become something else. “A landfill is a dead end.”.
In May, AT&T dropped a double set of the Real Yellow Pages at my door - a slightly smaller set then usual with business, residential and governmental listings and the promised yellow ads, plus a 9-inch yellow pages only book. A few weeks later Valley Yellow Pages tried to deliver [...]
Sonoma County has serious waste challenges as well as opportunities. Central Landfill, our publicly owned 400-acre disposal site near Petaluma, stopped landfilling operations in 2005 due to still unresolved Regional Water Quality Control Board liner and leachate issues. This means that five or more days per week, fifty-two weeks a [...]
Some Of The Outstanding Questions Facing Sonoma County How will the sale of the entire waste disposal system affect existing businesses, county programs and diversion goals? Will the cities sign flow control contracts? Why now, if not previously? Will a private owner be satisfied with Sonoma County’s shrinking waste [...]