San Benito County Supervisors reject transfer station at landfill

In a 4-1 vote at its Jan. 25 meeting, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors rejected a request to build a medium-volume transfer station at the John Smith Road Landfill.

The landfill operator, Waste Solutions Group, was seeking approval from the county to apply to California’s Department of Resource Recycling and Recovery (Calrecycle) for a transfer station permit. Waste Solutions would have required an additional approval by the board of supervisors before building a transfer station had they been allowed to apply for the permit from the state. 

The state defines a transfer station as a facility that receives, temporarily stores, separates, converts and processes waste or transfers waste directly from smaller to larger vehicles for transport. 

According to the agenda, Waste Solutions sought to use the transfer station to send 100 tons of in-county trash per day to another landfill. Paul Nelson, market area manager for Waste Solutions, did not specify which landfill would receive the waste. 

San Benito County Board of Supervisors Bob Tiffany and Kollin Kosmicki told BenitoLink they were concerned about traffic, impact on the roads and the landfill’s capacity. They also said they wanted to analyze a possible expansion of the landfill. 

Kosmicki also said he believes the current capacity estimate doesn’t take into account the county’s growth.

“Growth is a factor to the lifespan so the numbers are not spot on,” Kosmicki said.

Supervisor Betsy Dirks said her vote was primarily a reflection of the opinions of her constituents, 10 of whom contacted her asking to deny the request; two spoke in support of the transfer station.

“I’ll be representing my district, that’s what I was appointed to do,” she said. 

Supervisor Peter Hernandez said that the transfer station was a way to accept more out-of-town waste and that he rather prioritize the remaining capacity for in-county use.

The John Smith Road Landfill is prohibited from receiving out-of-county waste after its capacity drops to a 15-year window. The final 15 years allows in-county waste only. 

According to Nelson, sending waste processed at the proposed transfer station to another facility would enable the John Smith Road Landfill to accept out-of-county waste until October 2023. Without the transfer station, it’s estimated the landfill will have to stop accepting out-of-county waste around March 30, according to a graph presented to the supervisors.

The landfill is limited to accepting 1,000 tons per day, of which 80% is from out-of-county waste.

“What we’re seeking is the potential to deliver 390,000 tons to an alternative landfill at our sole cost,” Nelson said. He added that the transfer station would only be used if a proposed landfill expansion isn’t approved. 

With the landfill’s 15-year threshold approximately 60 days away, Waste Solutions and the county are seeking to expand the landfill from 95 to 483 acres. The project includes increasing the daily tonnage limit from 1,000 to 2,300.

San Benito County Public Information Officer David Westrick said the draft environmental impact report of the landfill expansion is expected to be made public in the second quarter of 2022. It was previously scheduled for release in June 2021. Waste Solutions, which has been operating the landfill since 2005, commissioned the required environmental study.

At the meeting, Nelson said that if the landfill could no longer accept out-of-town waste, revenue to the county from the road impact fees would decrease by about $1.4 million a year and that the process to approve the landfill expansion could take from six months to more than a year. 

Celina Stotler with Integrated Waste Management, a regional agency that serves San Benito County, Hollister and San Juan Bautista, said it’s estimated that the landfill will reach capacity in February 2026 if it continues to accept in- and out-of-county waste. If the landfill stops accepting out-of-county waste in March, the landfill would reach capacity in April 2037. Had the operator obtained a transfer station permit, it would have extended the viability of the landfill until July 2038.

This wasn’t Waste Solutions’ first attempt at obtaining a transfer station permit. According to the agenda, the company applied for a direct transfer permit in 2021 but withdrew it, deeming it “not feasible at this time,” following comments from CalRecycle.

Waste Solutions was successful, however, in adding landfill capacity and extending the threshold when they obtained a permit for a slope reconfiguration that increased the landfill’s capacity by 443,000 cubic yards, equivalent in size to a professional football field filled seven feet deep in waste. 

Though it was expected the slope reconfiguration would push the threshold to mid-2022, a December capacity report shows it could be reached as early as March 30, according to the agenda packet. 

Had the state not approved the slope reconfiguration permit, Waste Solutions would have stopped accepting out-of-town waste in September 2021.

Supervisor Bea Gonzalez was the lone vote in favor of applying for a permit.

 We need your help. Support local, nonprofit news! BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website that reports on San Benito County. Our team is committed to this community and providing essential, accurate information to our fellow residents. It is expensive to produce local news and community support is what keeps the news flowing. Please consider supporting BenitoLink, San Benito County’s public service, nonprofit news.