 |
|
Press Release
Riverside County Board of Supervisors Certifies Environmental
Report for Waste Management’s El Sobrante Landfill
Temescal Valley, CA, April 1, 2009 - Waste Management announced today that on March 31, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted (4 – 0 with one member absent from the meeting) to certify Waste Management’s environmental review documents for the El Sobrante Landfill and approve the requested permit revision.
The Board’s action on March 31 to certify the SEIR confirms that the document has been completed in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Under the direction of the Riverside County Waste Management Department, technical environmental studies for the SEIR were conducted and analyzed.
“We are very, very pleased. The Board of Supervisors’ action comes after our extensive public outreach process,” said Lily Quiroa, Community Relations Manager for the El Sobrante Landfill.
The EIR draft was circulated for a 45-day public review period and numerous community meetings were held throughout neighborhoods near the facility to present the environmental findings and answer the community’s questions. Comments received were addressed in the Final SEIR and are part of the project's public record.
“The community has been integrally involved in every aspect of this environmental review and analysis process," said Mike Williams, District Manager for El Sobrante Landfill. "We are pleased that the Board of Supervisors decided that the results of the study were valid and that the revised landfill permit will be a benefit for the community."
Waste Management is seeking a change to its current operating permit which would result in modernizing the operations at the landfill, including extending the hours for waste delivery (to reduce traffic congestion on nearby roads and freeways) and change the permitted disposal tonnage limits from a daily limit to a weekly limit (to give WM the flexibility to take waste during times when it will least impact traffic flow).
Today, the landfill operates 24 hours per day, but only accepts waste 20 hours a day (from 4:00 a.m. to 12 a.m. midnight). The approved new hours allow the acceptance of waste 24 hours per day in order to facilitate the transportation of waste in the late evening and early morning hours and remove the trucks from the morning and evening rush hours. The current permit’s limit on the number of vehicle trips allowed per day does not change under the permit approved today.
Waste Management will now submit an application to revise its landfill permit with the Local Enforcement Agency (or LEA, the local enforcement arm of the California Integrated Waste Management Board) and then will seek approval by the state Waste Board itself. Once the final approval is obtained, Waste Management hopes to implement the permit revision by Fall 2009.
The complete Final SEIR is available to the public and at the following locations:
Riverside County Waste Management Department
14310 Frederick St
Moreno Valley, CA 92551
and on the web at www.rivcowm.org
El Sobrante Landfill
10910 Dawson Canyon Rd.
Corona, CA 92283
and on the web at www.keepinginlandempireclean.com
Waste Management’s El Sobrante Landfill is located in the unincorporated area of Riverside County. The landfill serves more than one million Inland Empire residents and is a critical component of Riverside County and the greater Los Angeles region’s infrastructure. The site has more than XXX acres in permanent preservation and is a critical component of preserving open space in Riverside County. For more information on the landfill, please go to www.keepinginlandempireclean.com.
# # # # #
|
|
|
|
