LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors this week held a special meeting to approve several Sulphur fire-related matters and also discussed taking fire debris at the landfill from neighboring Mendocino County, which board members ultimately decided they couldn’t do.
The first item on the special Tuesday morning meeting’s agenda related to an agreement with the city of Clearlake.
County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson said staff put the agreement together on the advice of the California Office of Emergency Services in order to clarify the county’s relationship with the city of Clearlake for the debris cleanup.
Pursuant to the agreement, Lake County Environmental Health staff will oversee the cleanup effort; the county would then claim labor and mileage costs related to that project directly from state, and the city also would reimburse the county for other required costs.
The Clearlake City Council approved the agreement at its meeting last week. Since that time, Huchingson said the county had been advised that there may be a need to fine-tune the contract so the process of claiming reimbursement is facilitated properly.
Staff asked the supervisors to approve the agreement as written, with the understanding that it will be brought back at the next regular board meeting with changes. Huchingson said she had a conference call with CalOES later that day about the needed changes.
The board voted 5-0 to approve the contract.
Most of the meeting, which ran just over 70 minutes, was devoted to a discussion of whether the county’s Eastlake Landfill should receive debris generated by the Redwood fire in Mendocino County.
Public Services Director Lars Ewing, who advised against taking the materials, said a contractor for the US Army Corps of Engineers – which is overseeing the debris cleanup in Lake and Mendocino counties – approached the county to ask if it would accept debris at its landfill.
The Eastlake Landfill, Ewing explained, is the closest to the Redwood fire in Potter and Redwood valleys; otherwise, the contractor will have to truck it twice the distance to either Vacaville or Suisun City.
“That raises concerns, which we’ll talk about here, primarily air space,” said Ewing, explaining that air space is how area in the landfill is measured.
At the beginning of this calendar year, the landfill had eight to 10 years of air space left, which puts its life out to 2025 or 2027, Ewing said.
Ewing said his department is in the preliminary stages of the landfill expansion project. He said the best estimate is that we are five to six years out from being able to take the first load of garbage in the landfill’s newly expanded areas.
He said there is some “wiggle room” between the time the landfill’s air space runs out and being able to move into the new portion of the landfill.
The debris from Mendocino County, based on the best estimates that the county received from the Army Corps’ contractor, is expected to total 75,000 tons, Ewing said.
Based on the experience from previous fires, that’s about one year of air space at the landfill. “It reduces our wiggle room, is the best way to put it,” Ewing said.
Ewing said the county code indicates the landfill is for county residents and businesses; only the board can waive that rule.
In addition to the impact on the landfill’s air space, Ewing said there would be the need to ramp up operations and no guarantees that state officials would allow the county to expedite its landfill expansion project.
Supervisor Rob Brown he wanted to help but was torn over concerns about having already used a lot of landfill air space in recent years because of Lake County’s wildland fires.
However, he said the revenue from the debris could also help the expansion project.
Ewing agreed, noting they have a shortfall for the landfill expansion project. “This would bridge that gap.”
Board Chair Jeff Smith, who has been a member of the Solid Waste Task Force since he’s been on the board, said a previous Public Services director had always emphasized the importance of protecting the landfill.
The county did so well at recycling that it had a shortfall in revenue, so for a time the county had accepted garbage from Mendocino County, he said.
Smith said the county used a year and a half of its air space just from the fires in 2015 and 2016. He was also concerned about having another disaster that might take up more of that space.
“We’ve got to really be careful here,” Smith said.
County Counsel Anita Grant also pointed out that there are potential changes in laws and regulations that can speed up or slow down the landfill expansion project, plus challenges at every phase.
Grant said she thought Ewing’s time estimate on the expansion project was probably accurate and perhaps even hopeful.
Supervisor TIna Scott also was concerned about the risks. “We want to help our neighbors but do we have the ability to do that.”
In response to statements by board members that they were torn because they wanted to help their neighbors, Huchingson said county staffers have been working closely with their counterparts in the other fire-stricken counties.
“They fully acknowledge that Lake County is in own distress with all the wildfires, the compounded five disasters,” she said, referring to the Rocky, Jerusalem, Valley, Clayton and Sulphur fires.
She added that she didn’t believe there was any expectation on the part of Mendocino County that Lake County would accept the debris.
Due to the overarching concerns of using up the landfill’s air space before the expansion was completed, the board chose not to allow the landfill to accept the Redwood fire debris.
In other business, the board approved resolutions relating to rebuilding nonconforming structures destroyed by the Sulphur fire and allowing for the occupancy of temporary dwellings in the fire area, actions similar to those taken by the board in response to the Valley fire.
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Board of Supervisors approves fire-related agreement and resolutions, won’t take out-of-county fire debris
- Elizabeth Larson
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