Residents remain concerned about increased traffic on John Smith Road even as supervisors approved a general plan amendment and application to CalRecycle to expand the daily tonnage allowed into the landfill from 500 tons per day up to 1,000 tons per day.
The votes at Thursday’s special board meeting were unrelated to the proposed Resource Recovery Park project at the site, but would increase the capacity of John Smith Landfill for needs that are anticipated four to seven years in the future.
During the public comment period of last week’s board meeting, residents expressed concerns about road repairs that are already needed on John Smith Road. One resident talked about the high number of potholes and said the repairs on the potholes are done in such a way that they can damage cars. Other residents expressed concern about the amount of trash left along the roadway, either by the trucks carrying debris to the landfill or by debris flying out from the landfill property onto nearby properties.
One resident called for the supervisors to require improvements to the roadway and debris control before approving the expansion of the property.
Mandy Rose, the director of Integrated Waste Management, said that while the department is sending an application to CalRecycle to increase the daily tonnage to 1,000 tons a day, the average daily amount brought to the dump now is 250 tons. She said recyclable items would not be included in that cap. Rose estimated at build-out, the increased capacity would bring about 25 more truck trips a day.
“It would increase in height and width,” Rose said. “I’d like to add one thing – I believe it would be four to seven years before we move into that area.”
Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz asked if the application to increase the tonnage would change the language of who is allowed to dump items. Rose said the only change would be in the capacity, not what items or who can use the landfill.
“My concern is infrastructure and roads,” said Supervisor Robert Rivas. “We certainly need to make a commitment to improve John Smith Road. But I see the benefit of generating new revenue for our county.”
Public Works Director Steve Wittry said his department is aware of improvements that need to be made to the road. He said about 90 percent of the roadway can be fixed with an overlay while 10 percent of it requires “base repairs” that would call for complete replacement of the roadway. The county has been tying up its pothole machinery working on roadways in the rural part of the county, along Panoche and Coalinga roads, but he said John Smith Road is high on the priority list.
Supervisors approved the general plan amendment to change the land-use designation for the property from agricultural rangeland to public/quasi-public and approved the mitigated negative declaration. They also approved the submittal of an application to CalRecycle to expand the capacity of the daily tonnage. Supervisors approved both items unanimously.
Though they approved both projects, some of the supervisors asked Rose to look into the concerns of some of the residents. They specifically asked Rose to find out what it would cost to have fences installed along the property lines to keep debris off adjacent properties and also what it would cost to do some landscaping around the entrance to the landfill. Supervisor Margie Barrios asked Rose to meet with the landfill operators to find out if such improvements would be the responsibility of the county or the operator, and how it might affect rates for residents.
With direction from the board, Rose said she would be prepared to come back to supervisors for further discussion in November.
