City Administrator Dale Neiman reported to the Clearlake City Council on Jan. 22 that the California Integrated Waste Management Board has notified the city that it's not meeting the mandatory 50-percent diversion rate.
A Jan. 13 letter to the city states that the waste board plans to discuss issuing a compliance order to the city during two public meetings in Sacramento. The first, on Feb. 17, will be before the waste board's permitting and compliance committee; the second, on Feb. 24, will be during a waste board meeting.
Following a review of the city's diversion rates, the state concluded that Clearlake's 2005 rate was 45 percent, which fell to 38 percent in 2006. The tonnage estimates for 2007 also look to be below the 50-percent mark, according to the letter.
A compliance order would require the city to work directly with waste board staff to develop a local implementation program, essentially a strategy for getting the city to its required diversion rates, the letter states.
If the compliance order is issued and the city fails to meet the order's requirements, the letter warns that the waste board can issue civil penalties of up to $10,000 a day.
Neiman told the council that some of the issues impacting Clearlake's diversion performance are illegal dumping, the city's abatement of buildings and a growing problem of people stealing recyclables from bins around the city. In the latter case, the city gets no credit for the diversions when the recyclables disappear.
Clearlake also doesn't have the resources to hire a person to track diversion and oversee recycling programs, which most cities Clearlake's size have, said Neiman.
Until the late 1990s, burn barrels were allowed in Clearlake, he said. When those were banned, that garbage was added to the local waste stream. People who haul their own garbage to the landfill, he added, don't always recycle as much as they can.
Councilman Curt Giambruno saw a possible solution to the problem.
“Maybe, just maybe, this is the time we need to discuss going to mandatory garbage,” he said. “Maybe we need to really get down to brass tacks.”
Councilman Roy Simons agreed with Giambruno's suggestion, relating that his next door neighbors had a garbage dump in their garage.
Supervisor Jeff Smith said the county began considering mandatory – or, as it's more properly known, universal – garbage collection several years ago.
He suggested it would go a long way with the waste board for the city to look at universal trash collection.
Smith said he had wanted to introduce the discussion about universal collection throughout the county last month, but then he found out that the county's unincorporated areas are currently at an 85-percent diversion rate.
He pointed out that Lakeport has universal garbage service. Lakeport instituted that service in January 2004, as Lake County News has reported.
“The people that care are the ones that have the garbage service,” said Smith.
Smith said the county will be happy to help the city, because they don't want to see them hit by the fine.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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