Rural coastal town trash problems - Pescadero

Lack of San Mateo County financial subsidy could close Republic Services trash dumping, recycling transfer station.  Doing that would also leave rural Pescadero without a trash collection vendor.  Not knowing much about the business or the liability, Pescadero's town advisory committee is considering a cost saving "do-it-yourself" approach. Good luck! 

Mercury News, Julia Scott, 10/22/11.  "There was a time when rural residents of Pescadero, lacking anywhere to dump their garbage, would just dig a hole and toss it in. Those days could return, locals fear, if the county decides to close the town's transfer station -- the only place for thousands of South Coast residents to bring their trash, recycling and household junk. Operated by Republic Services, the transfer station runs a $15,000 monthly deficit despite a generous monthly subsidy from the county. Its prices are artificially low -- it costs just $3 to dump a mattress, for instance.

Now that subsidy is going away because the county is canceling its Solid Waste Fund. As of August 2012, locals will face astronomical rate hikes unless someone can find a way to make up the difference. If not, people living outside Pescadero's downtown corridor may take to dumping their trash deep in the woods or in ravines. Motorists can see it now, if they know where to look -- tires, a toilet, bags of broken tiles and soiled diapers.

"We don't want to get into the trash business, but we don't want to lose the transfer station, and we don't want to see garbage along the streets," said Greg Bonaparte, chairman of the Pescadero Municipal Advisory Committee, a local citizens group. Faced with the deadline, the committee is scrambling to hammer out a business plan to take over the transfer station, possibly as a nonprofit that would have less overhead and would be directly controlled by locals, instead of by Republic Services. The nonprofit would subcontract hauling and disposal, and try to make a little money by having employees sort recycling on-site and sell the materials, as opposed to shipping them off in a jumble as they do now. Even so, Bonaparte estimates the transfer station would probably run a deficit of $4,000 to $5,000 a month.

County officials have tentatively agreed to cover expenses for the first 36 months while the nonprofit works to develop other sources of revenue and reduce expenses. "Somebody needs to come in who really knows what they're doing, who has some passion and interest in the whole thing, so it can be turned around," said Catherine Peery, an advisory committee member who lives on the outskirts of Pescadero.  

Roughly 600 Pescadero residents and businesses along the town's three main streets get weekly trash pickup from Republic Services, while local farmers and plant nurseries contract with hauling companies for the green waste they don't compost on-site. Everyone else is on their own. By some estimates, more than 1,000 other South Coast residents -- from the wilds south of Half Moon Bay down the coast to Davenport, from La Honda up to Skyline Boulevard -- all use the transfer station somewhat regularly.   

At present, the county pays Republic Services $14,500 per month to operate the transfer station. The company also charges the county for per-pound dump fees it incurs when it hauls trash to the Ox Mountain landfill in Half Moon Bay -- on average, another $5,000 a month. Those dump fees are offset by use fees charged to people who use the transfer station, which amount to $7,000 in a good month.  Republic Services would be amenable to canceling its franchise agreement with the county, according to Bonaparte. It expires in 2015. Not everyone is convinced of the merits of the committee's proposal, however. "Once you get volunteers and let people wander around this equipment, it gets really dangerous," said Dante Silvesti, a local farmer. Silvestri's family used to own a landfill behind the transfer station, but it closed in the 1980s and is now being capped with a liner at county expense."

Posted by Kathy Meeh