San Benito County will host a town hall workshop on the draft environmental impact report for the John Smith Road Landfill expansion project on Aug. 22. The workshop will start at 6:30pm, at the Veterans Memorial Building, 649 San Benito Street in Hollister.
The workshop will include a presentation about the project, as well as various workshop tables for attendees to learn more about the project from county staff and Landfill representatives, says a press release from the county. During the town hall, members of the public may submit written comments.
All written comments on the draft EIR will be included as part of the final EIR, which will include responses to all comments received. Due to the workshop format, there will not be an opportunity at the workshop to present verbal comments on the EIR.
For more information, or to view the Draft EIR, visit www.cosb.us/jsrlexpansion.
Anyone with disabilities who requires accommodations to participate in the meeting can contact Stan Ketchum before Aug. 22, by email at SK******@co**.us, or by phone at 408.802.5800.
Contact Ketchum for any other questions about the landfill expansion project.
The proposed JSRL expansion includes a 388.05‐acre northern expansion of the existing 95.16‐acre landfill, says the county’s press release. This expansion would increase the landfill’s disposal capacity, expand the total waste footprint, increase the maximum permitted elevation of the final landfill and increase the maximum permitted daily tonnage accepted at the JSRL.
To accommodate these changes, several other revisions to the landfill facility are also proposed. These include expanding the landfill entrance area to accommodate additional daily vehicle arrivals and reduce vehicle queuing on John Smith Road, expanding the site’s environmental control and monitoring systems, constructing a renewable natural gas facility, expanding litter and dust control throughout the site, clean closing the current 5.11-acre Class I Area owned by the City of Hollister and converting it to a disposal area for Class III waste, establishing a new haul route for out‐of‐county trucks delivering waste to the site, and increasing or altering the site’s water supply, the press release continues.
Additionally, about 70 acres of the 101.3‐acre property owned by San Benito County located south of John Smith Road would likely be used for habitat mitigation purposes. The project requires a conditional use permit and General Plan amendment.
