We tend to think of ourselves as environmentally aware, and in Marin, we are — but when it comes to trash, we generate twice the national average per person, per year. And this causes big problems, because when the garbage truck comes by and takes away the trash, much of it remains right here in the county, at Redwood Landfill, north of Novato.

Marin Sanitary Service, Novato Disposal Service, and Mill Valley Refuse Service all use Redwood Landfill as their final dumping ground, after they've extracted everything they can recycle or reuse. After half a century of being the repository for this affluent county's waste, Redwood has become the focus of a long and intense battle over its size and safety.

As opponent Doug Kerr sees it, Redwood is an environmental disaster waiting to happen: "What's at stake is no less than the potential destruction of beautiful wetlands and our groundwater, resulting in an astronomical tax burden for Marin County taxpayers," Kerr said recently.

Draft EIR

The spotlight fell on Redwood Landfill 10 years ago, when Waste Management Inc. (WM) of Houston, a massive company with some 20 million customers in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, purchased it. When WM applied for renewal of the landfill's solid waste permit, the County rejected the application and called for an environmental impact report (EIR).

A draft EIR was released in 2003, and the contentious environmental review process has been going on ever since, frustrating and angering both sides. WM has made concessions. It originally asked that its "capacity" — how big its trash pile can get before the facility has to shut down forever — be increased to 34 million cubic yards, from an estimated 15.3 million cubic yards in 2006. It has scaled that down to 26 million cubic yards, enough to create a trash heap 16 stories high.

There are problems with the site itself that can never be mitigated: It is situated in a floodplain, between two active earthquake faults, and next to San Antonio Creek, which connects to the Petaluma Marsh and then San Pablo Bay. Everybody agrees that a dump would never be placed in such a sensitive area today. However, there is nowhere in the county where an alternative landfill could find a home.

"It would be inconceivable to site a landfill in Marin," said Trip Allen of the Sierra Club, "for economic, political, and environmental reasons."

When the landfill does reach capacity, Marin may have to haul its garbage out of the area. That process is costly, due to the price of diesel for semi trucks, plus labor costs and dump fees. And those semi trucks driving long distances will cause pollution. Then there's the fairness issue: Shouldn't Marin shoulder responsibility for its own trash?

Permit Timetable

Because of the lack of good alternatives, Redwood Landfill is likely to get its permit —possibly by the end of the year. On April 28 and May 5, the County Planning Commission held intense public hearings on the EIR. Environmental groups, many combining efforts under the banners of the Green Coalition for Responsible Waste/Resource Management and No Wetlands Landfill Expansion, spoke passionately against approval, bringing in experts to testify that the EIR was deficient. The commissioners listened, made changes called "mitigations," and then unanimously approved the revised plan, sending it to the next level.

On June 10, Marin County Environmental Health Services, which has been designated by the state to be the county's "Local Enforcement Agency," certified the revised EIR.

Shortly after the June 10 decision, No Wetlands Landfill Expansion told local newspapers that it had intended to appeal but had been told that the landfill permit process doesn't include appeal — essentially that the four opportunities for public input had already taken place (two for the draft EIR, followed by two more for the final EIR). Even if an appeal isn't allowed, there remains the possibility of filing a lawsuit.

"We're reserving all our options," said Christopher Gilkerson, director of Green Coalition for Responsible Waste/Resource Management. The group was "very disappointed" that the county didn't heed warnings about old, inadequate levees, seepage of "leachate," and likely inundation of the landfill if sea levels rise as predicted from the effects of global warming. "We are not satisfied, and we made that clear," he said. In an e-mail, he told supporters that he was "still consulting with several lawyers."

N ext Steps

The next step is a decision by Environmental Health Services Director Phil Smith on whether to grant WM the new solid waste facilities permit allowing the landfill to take in up to 1,290 tons a day. Smith has said that he will hold another public hearing before he renders a decision, and although no date had been set at the time this magazine went to press, the hearing is expected to occur in August or September.

If EHS approves the permit, it will go to the state's Integrated Waste Management Board for "concurrence," and the new permit could be issued as soon as November. But in five years, that permit would be up for review.

Environmental groups fought long and hard for their "Four Principles": banning green and organic waste from the dump; strong earthquake, groundwater, and flood protections; a mitigation fee to discourage Marin's cavalier throwaway rate and dumping by people from outside the county, with fees to be used for zero-waste programs and independent monitoring; and requiring WM to set aside money to pay the tab for "the inevitable toxic cleanup."

Among the final changes made by the Planning Commission was a recommendation that an independent monitor be hired to keep tabs on Redwood's operations and report back to the community. The commissioners also linked granting of increased capacity with decreases in greenhouse emissions.

For its part, says Redwood Landfill Manager Jessica Jones, once WM gets its permit, it will move forward with environmentally friendly projects, such as harnessing the methane gas that the dump emits and turning it into 5 megawatts of renewable power, using a technology known as "waste to energy." WM's Altamont, Simi Valley, Bradley, and El Sobrante landfills generate 21.5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 22,000 homes.