County wades into sludge concerns

Supervisors offer deal to Murphys Sanitary

Calaveras County supervisors threw a lifeline to the Murphys Sanitary District this week, offering to waive a proposed $32-per-ton disposal fee on sludge stockpiled at district treatment ponds.

The county’s offer to take on biosolids currently housed at the district site counts as windfall for sewer district directors facing more than $225,000 in environmental fines and offsite sludge removal costs.

The one-time fee waiver is only meant to apply to the roughly 33,000 cubic yards of improperly stored district sludge already susceptible to hefty state fines, a move supported by Supervisor Merita Callaway

“(Murphys Sanitary District) have been in dire straits for many years,” Callaway told fellow board members. “This (fee waiver) would be a one-time only thing to help them through this rough spot.”

Sludge dumping at the county’s Rock Creek landfill first won board approval seventeen years ago and was later suspended in an effort to incentivize alternative, non-landfill uses for county biosolids.

“The districts in Calaveras County were a little slow to pick up on the beneficial use part,” lamented Public Works Director Tom Garcia. “That required supervisors to take the steps to no longer accept biosolids at the landfill.”

That ban was lifted in 2010, by which time most districts, according to Garcia, had found ways to adhere to state guidelines.

Those who haven’t, including Murphys, will now have to meet environmental standards settled on by the county’s Rock Creek landfill or face a punitive $54-per-ton charge.

“It was a good move,” Garcia said of the board’s landfill diversion effort. “It happened and the districts finally found beneficial uses for those biosolids, including land applications in other jurisdictions where the sludge was used to feed crops.”

Taking those potential landfill revenues outside the county didn’t seat nearly as well with District 1 board hopeful Cliff Edson, who questioned not just past board policy, but the fee waiver earlier proposed by Callaway.
He worries the move will set a dangerous precedent.

“As far as Murphys getting a break, I don’t know that’s fair to the other districts,” Edson told the board. “The rest of us aren’t getting a break, we’ve been paying a lot more with the money leaving the county, and we’ve been doing it for a lot longer.”

Supervisor Steve Wilensky, who supported the as-amended measure, conceded that past policies encouraging out-of-county sludge removal amounted to a missed revenue opportunity, albeit one made predictable by the county’s “Balkanized” sewer and water district coverage.

“This is less a problem of policy then fundamental structure,” Wilensky explained. “These kinds of problems are inevitable when we’ve got 10 or 12 water or sewer districts in a tiny county that could barely sustain one.”
“It’s correct that having all this go out of county is a waste. It’s costing each ratepayer more. Every time we have 10 administrations instead of one, it costs you more,” he continued. “We’re watching people drive miles away to another county to dispose of something that could be an asset. That’s another example of how, if this county doesn’t somehow, together, put humpty dumpty back together again, we’re going to always have this discussion, we’re going to always be missing opportunities.”

That sentiment won support from Board Chair Gary Tofanelli, the lone dissenting vote to motion passed Tuesday.

“This is to help this district that, when I was on the grand jury, we heard nothing but complaints about,” Tofanelli said. “It seems to me that they’re always looking for a bailout, always looking for somebody to help them. It just doesn’t seem that (the district) can operate at the size that it is and meet state standards.”

“What’s to prevent (Murphys Sanitary District) from coming back to us three years from now?” he concluded.

Callaway said she couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t, instead defending the move on principle. “They’ve made giant steps and they have a board now that’s much more in-tune,” she explained. “If we don’t help them, the state won’t, and that will cost the whole community a lot of money.”
Supervisors passed the as-amended motion 4-1, eventually settling on an Oct. 15 deadline for completing sludge removal efforts at district treatment ponds.

Board members next meet for a regularly scheduled board meeting Tuesday, Oct. 9.

Contact James DeHaven at james@calaverasenterprise.com.