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The Independent
16-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Board stops California toxic waste regulators from weakening a hazardous waste rule
California shouldn't weaken hazardous waste rules to allow local landfills to accept toxic dirt that currently goes to two specialized disposal sites in the Central Valley and hazardous facilities in other states, the state Board of Environmental Safety voted Thursday. The vote went against a proposal by the Department of Toxic Substances Control that had prompted fierce opposition from environmental groups. 'I think they have been really listening to the community," said Melissa Bumstead with the advocacy group Parents Against the Santa Susana Field Lab. California's hazardous waste laws are stricter than the federal government's, and the state has long transported much of the waste it considers hazardous to other states with more lenient rules. The Department of Toxic Substances Control said disposing more waste in state would likely reduce costs and truck emissions. But environmental advocates worried the plan could have exposed already vulnerable communities to contaminated waste and set the precedent for more rules to be weakened. 'I don't think that municipal waste landfills were ever designed to accept this kind of waste, and to deregulate it ... puts those landfill communities' at risk, said Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics. California only has two hazardous waste landfills — Buttonwillow and Kettleman Hills in the San Joaquin Valley — which are expected to reach capacity by 2039, according to a report by the department. An estimated 47% of California's hazardous waste is trucked across state borders. Contaminated soil, waste oil and mixed oil are the state's three largest annual sources of hazardous waste. On average, more than 567,000 tons (514,373 metric tons) of toxic soil are produced every year. Los Angeles wildfires raised awareness of the issue The hearing comes months after wildfires in Los Angeles incinerated cars, homes and everything in them, turning ordinary objects into hundreds of tons of hazardous waste requiring specialized cleanup. It was the largest wildfire hazardous materials cleanup in the EPA's history. The infernos have also raised concerns about toxic ash and soil. Just this week, the Pasadena Unified School District published soil testing results showing high levels of arsenic or brain-damaging lead in nearly half its schools. After the fires, hazardous waste was sent to temporary sites to be separated and packaged before most of it was trucked to Utah, Arizona, Nebraska and Arkansas. Two facilities were in California — in Wilmington, near the port of Long Beach, and Buttonwillow. The type and amount of waste deposited in them varies by site, but it includes oil, radioactive materials, paint residue, asbestos, controlled substances and fluorescent lamps. 'I think that the fires have really brought to the fore some long-standing issues,' said Angela Johnson Meszaros with the environmental law group Earthjustice. 'And one of them is, how are we going to deal with cleanup, right? Because fires are not the only thing that cause soil to be hazardous.' A state law passed in 2021 set out to reform the Department of Toxic Substances Control. In March, the department released a draft plan of sweeping proposals that would guide state and local hazardous management. The board is expected to make a final decision in the summer, and it's not clear if the department could go against the board's wishes not to weaken the hazardous waste disposal rule. Board member Alexis Strauss Hacker recalled how concerned people were about the proposal during their March meeting in Fresno. The fear, she said, was 'so palpable.' Although California has decreased its hazardous waste by more than 40% since 2000, lithium-ion batteries and other types of waste are expected to increase, the report says, and the state currently lacks the capacity to manage them. Lithium-ion batteries are found in common items such as electronic vehicles, cellphones and laptops. Decades of industrial environmental pollution can accumulate, too. The issue is personal for one activist Bumstead has lived near the heavily polluted Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Southern California, once a site for rocket testing and nuclear reactor development. Her 15-year-old daughter is a two-time cancer survivor, and Bumstead was born with three spleens. She believes her family's health issues are linked to pollution from the nearby site. So when she heard that California environmental regulators wanted to weaken hazardous waste disposal rules in a bid to dump toxic soil into local landfills, she was very concerned. The Los Angeles fires have made more people realize that toxic materials could end up in their backyard, Bumstead said. 'The more we see climate change, the more we see wildfires, the more this is going to become a front line issue,' she told the board. 'This is an opportunity not just for hazardous waste that is manufactured, but also hazardous waste that is created by wildfires on how to create a plan that is going to protect Californians in the future.' ———
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
California regulators want to weaken hazardous waste disposal rules
California environmental regulators are considering rolling back the state's hazardous waste disposal rules, potentially permitting some municipal landfills to accept more contaminated soil from heavily polluted areas. From lead-acid battery smelters to rocket testing facilities, heavy industry over the past century in California has left large swathes of land imbued with dangerous chemicals. As a result, contaminated soil that has been removed during major environmental cleanups or new construction has typically comprised the largest bloc of hazardous waste in California each year. More than 560,000 tons of toxic dirt are excavated every year on average, according to a 2023 DTSC report. The vast majority of this polluted soil would not qualify as hazardous waste outside of California, because the state has more stringent rules than the federal government. But now the California Department of Toxic Substances Control is recommending loosening the state's hazardous waste rules for contaminated soil, arguing that many nonhazardous landfills are adequately equipped to accept chemical-laced dirt, according to an unpublished draft plan obtained by The Times. DTSC spokesperson Alysa Pakkidis said the agency is exploring ways to manage California-only hazardous waste "under different standards while still protecting public health and the environment," as required by a 2021 state law. The agency's recommendations will be detailed in the state's first Hazardous Waste Management Plan, a document that is intended to help guide state strategy on potentially dangerous wastes and which the 2021 law requires be published every three years. The law called for the first version to be published by March 1. But as of March 11, it has still not been posted publicly. The DTSC proposal comes as hazardous waste, namely in the form of soil polluted after the recent L.A. wildfires, has become top of mind. Government agencies are facing blistering criticism over their decision to allow untested — and potentially hazardous — wildfire ash and soil to be disposed of in municipal landfills across Southern California. Environmental groups say allowing nonhazardous waste landfills to accept chemical-laced soil would be a grave mistake. By dumping more toxic substances into the landfills, there's a higher chance of chemicals leaking into groundwater or becoming part of airborne dust blowing into nearby communities. "The reason we established these waste codes was to protect California's groundwater and public health,' said Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics, an environmental nonprofit. 'You can see how effectively [the state is] regulating landfills without the hazardous waste. We're finding vast noncompliance." California's more rigorous hazardous waste standards have led to higher costs for industry and government, as under the current rules, contaminated soil must be transported to a specialized hazardous waste facility in California or hauled to landfills in neighboring states. California currently has only two hazardous waste landfills: Kettleman Hills and Buttonwillow, both in San Joaquin Valley. Oftentimes, contaminated soil is taken to nonhazardous landfills in neighboring states that rely on the more lenient federal standards. The average distance driven to dispose of California-designated hazardous soil is about 440 miles, according to a DTSC draft report. "Because there's only two and they're kind of far away from everything, it is very expensive to take material there,' said Nick Lapis, director of advocacy for Californians Against Waste, a Sacramento-based environmental nonprofit. "So people are always looking for ways to not take material there, and that has sometimes resulted in people taking material out of state." The proposed changes would in theory give private industry a larger selection of in-state landfills to which they could send their waste. DTSC argues that this would result in shorter trucking distances, less air pollution and lower costs. But the state could also see cost savings from relaxing its policies. California has been funding the removal and replacement of soil in neighborhoods around the Exide battery plant in Southeast L.A. County — the state's most expensive cleanup. State contractors are trucking hazardous soil from that site to nonhazardous waste landfills in Utah, Nevada and Arizona — states that rely on the more lenient federal hazardous waste standards. California currently uses three tests to determine whether solid waste is hazardous. One ensures waste doesn't exceed state-established limits for certain toxic substances when the waste is in a solid form. For example, soil with 1,000 parts per million of lead is considered toxic by the state. The other two tests measure the concentration of toxic substances that seep out of solid waste when it is exposed to an acid. These are intended to simulate how solid waste could release chemicals inside the landfill as it's exposed to leachate — liquid waste from rainfall or decomposing garbage. One of these tests is based on federally established methods, and the other is based on the stricter California state-established standards. DTSC recommends allowing contaminated soil that fails the state's leakage test to be dumped at nonhazardous waste landfills, so long as it passes the other two tests. They stressed that hazardous soil would be sent to landfills with liners and leachate collection systems — equipment that gathers and pumps out liquid waste that trickles to the bottom of the dump. Environmental advocates say liner systems can fail when damaged by earthquakes or extreme heat. They argue that sending chemical-laced soil into such systems would eventually imperil groundwater near landfills and could lead to long-term contamination risks. Residents who live near the landfills that are already accepting debris from the Eaton and Palisades wildfires say they are also worried about toxic dust. One of these sites is the Sunshine Canyon Landfill, a 1,036-acre landfill located in a blustery mountain pass in the northeastern San Fernando Valley where gusts often blow dust and odors into nearby communities. The landfill is less than a mile away from a popular recreational area with soccer fields and baseball diamonds. After trucks moved fire debris to the landfill, Erick Fefferman, a resident of nearby Granada Hills, decided against allowing his son to participate in a youth soccer league there this year. "We keep hearing about liners and leachate, but we're not hearing about wind," said Erick Fefferman. "Things don't just sink down — they also get lifted up." Contaminated soil is allowed to be used as "daily cover," a layer of material spread over municipal waste to prevent odors and pests. In a November 2024 meeting, when state officials were asked if California-only hazardous soil could be used as a cover, a DTSC representative said 'it is a consideration." California's hazardous waste laws were first established in 1972 to direct the state to regulate the handling, transportation and disposal of dangerous materials within the state. The state adopted a more rigorous classification system and regulations, including the state leakage test, in the 1980s. Though California's regulations are among the strictest in the nation, they have been loosened over time. In 2021, for example, the state legislature adopted rules allowing for wood coated with toxic metals like chromium and arsenic to be taken to nonhazardous waste facilities. Contaminated soil could be next. DTSC is working to identify regulatory or statutory avenues that would allow for soil that could be contaminated with heavy metals to be dumped at California landfills. To do so, the agency will need the cooperation of the state Water Resources Board and CalRecycle, which regulate nonhazardous waste landfills. Landfill owners would also need to volunteer to accept contaminated soil, according to the DTSC draft plan. The Board of Environmental Safety, a five-member committee that provides oversight of DTSC, will host a series of public meetings on the state's hazardous waste plan. The board is scheduled to vote on whether to approve the plan in July. Environmental advocates say the plans will likely face stiff opposition. "If we need more disposal capacity, maybe we should be requiring everybody to have the same standards as a hazardous waste landfill," said Lapis, the advocacy director for Californians Against Waste. "Deregulation is not the right solution, the fact that they're even proposing it is kind of crazy to me." This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
California regulators want to weaken hazardous waste disposal rules
California environmental regulators are considering rolling back the state's hazardous waste disposal rules, potentially permitting some municipal landfills to accept more contaminated soil from heavily polluted areas. From lead-acid battery smelters to rocket testing facilities, heavy industry over the past century in California has left large swathes of land imbued with dangerous chemicals. As a result, contaminated soil that has been removed during major environmental cleanups or new construction has typically comprised the largest bloc of hazardous waste in California each year. More than 560,000 tons of toxic dirt are excavated every year on average, according to a 2023 DTSC report. The vast majority of this polluted soil would not qualify as hazardous waste outside of California, because the state has more stringent rules than the federal government. But now the California Department of Toxic Substances Control is recommending loosening the state's hazardous waste rules for contaminated soil, arguing that many nonhazardous landfills are adequately equipped to accept chemical-laced dirt, according to an unpublished draft plan obtained by The Times. DTSC spokesperson Alysa Pakkidis said the agency is exploring ways to manage California-only hazardous waste 'under different standards while still protecting public health and the environment,' as required by a 2021 state law. The agency's recommendations will be detailed in the state's first Hazardous Waste Management Plan, a document that is intended to help guide state strategy on potentially dangerous wastes and which the 2021 law requires be published every three years. The law called for the first version to be published by March 1. But as of March 11, it has still not been posted publicly. The DTSC proposal comes as hazardous waste, namely in the form of soil polluted after the recent L.A. wildfires, has become top of mind. Government agencies are facing blistering criticism over their decision to allow untested — and potentially hazardous — wildfire ash and soil to be disposed of in municipal landfills across Southern California. Environmental groups say allowing nonhazardous waste landfills to accept chemical-laced soil would be a grave mistake. By dumping more toxic substances into the landfills, there's a higher chance of chemicals leaking into groundwater or becoming part of airborne dust blowing into nearby communities. 'The reason we established these waste codes was to protect California's groundwater and public health,' said Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics, an environmental nonprofit. 'You can see how effectively [the state is] regulating landfills without the hazardous waste. We're finding vast noncompliance.' California's more rigorous hazardous waste standards have led to higher costs for industry and government, as under the current rules, contaminated soil must be transported to a specialized hazardous waste facility in California or hauled to landfills in neighboring states. California currently has only two hazardous waste landfills: Kettleman Hills and Buttonwillow, both in San Joaquin Valley. Oftentimes, contaminated soil is taken to nonhazardous landfills in neighboring states that rely on the more lenient federal standards. The average distance driven to dispose of California-designated hazardous soil is about 440 miles, according to a DTSC draft report. 'Because there's only two and they're kind of far away from everything, it is very expensive to take material there,' said Nick Lapis, director of advocacy for Californians Against Waste, a Sacramento-based environmental nonprofit. 'So people are always looking for ways to not take material there, and that has sometimes resulted in people taking material out of state.' The proposed changes would in theory give private industry a larger selection of in-state landfills to which they could send their waste. DTSC argues that this would result in shorter trucking distances, less air pollution and lower costs. But the state could also see cost savings from relaxing its policies. California has been funding the removal and replacement of soil in neighborhoods around the Exide battery plant in Southeast L.A. County — the state's most expensive cleanup. State contractors are trucking hazardous soil from that site to nonhazardous waste landfills in Utah, Nevada and Arizona — states that rely on the more lenient federal hazardous waste standards. California currently uses three tests to determine whether solid waste is hazardous. One ensures waste doesn't exceed state-established limits for certain toxic substances when the waste is in a solid form. For example, soil with 1,000 parts per million of lead is considered toxic by the state. The other two tests measure the concentration of toxic substances that seep out of solid waste when it is exposed to an acid. These are intended to simulate how solid waste could release chemicals inside the landfill as it's exposed to leachate — liquid waste from rainfall or decomposing garbage. One of these tests is based on federally established methods, and the other is based on the stricter California state-established standards. DTSC recommends allowing contaminated soil that fails the state's leakage test to be dumped at nonhazardous waste landfills, so long as it passes the other two tests. They stressed that hazardous soil would be sent to landfills with liners and leachate collection systems — equipment that gathers and pumps out liquid waste that trickles to the bottom of the dump. Environmental advocates say liner systems can fail when damaged by earthquakes or extreme heat. They argue that sending chemical-laced soil into such systems would eventually imperil groundwater near landfills and could lead to long-term contamination risks. Residents who live near the landfills that are already accepting debris from the Eaton and Palisades wildfires say they are also worried about toxic dust. One of these sites is the Sunshine Canyon Landfill, a 1,036-acre landfill located in a blustery mountain pass in the northeastern San Fernando Valley where gusts often blow dust and odors into nearby communities. The landfill is less than a mile away from a popular recreational area with soccer fields and baseball diamonds. After trucks moved fire debris to the landfill, Erick Fefferman, a resident of nearby Granada Hills, decided against allowing his son to participate in a youth soccer league there this year. 'We keep hearing about liners and leachate, but we're not hearing about wind,' said Erick Fefferman. 'Things don't just sink down — they also get lifted up.' Contaminated soil is allowed to be used as 'daily cover,' a layer of material spread over municipal waste to prevent odors and pests. In a November 2024 meeting, when state officials were asked if California-only hazardous soil could be used as a cover, a DTSC representative said 'it is a consideration.' California's hazardous waste laws were first established in 1972 to direct the state to regulate the handling, transportation and disposal of dangerous materials within the state. The state adopted a more rigorous classification system and regulations, including the state leakage test, in the 1980s. Though California's regulations are among the strictest in the nation, they have been loosened over time. In 2021, for example, the state legislature adopted rules allowing for wood coated with toxic metals like chromium and arsenic to be taken to nonhazardous waste facilities. Contaminated soil could be next. DTSC is working to identify regulatory or statutory avenues that would allow for soil that could be contaminated with heavy metals to be dumped at California landfills. To do so, the agency will need the cooperation of the state Water Resources Board and CalRecycle, which regulate nonhazardous waste landfills. Landfill owners would also need to volunteer to accept contaminated soil, according to the DTSC draft plan. The Board of Environmental Safety, a five-member committee that provides oversight of DTSC, will host a series of public meetings on the state's hazardous waste plan. The board is scheduled to vote on whether to approve the plan in July. Environmental advocates say the plans will likely face stiff opposition. 'If we need more disposal capacity, maybe we should be requiring everybody to have the same standards as a hazardous waste landfill,' said Lapis, the advocacy director for Californians Against Waste. 'Deregulation is not the right solution, the fact that they're even proposing it is kind of crazy to me.'
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Corona dump burdened with underground fire seeks to accept debris from L.A. infernos
The Eaton and Palisades fires had barely broken out when Waste Management offered to accept the inevitable disaster debris at its El Sobrante Landfill in Corona. But even as the company applied Jan. 8 for an emergency waiver to accept the wildfire rubble, landfill staffers had been struggling for months to control a fiery situation of their own. In July, El Sobrante managers informed the South Coast Air Quality Management District that a chemical reaction brewing inside the landfill was causing broiling temperatures and producing toxic sulfur pollution, according to air district records. Waste Management sought approval to increase its tonnage capacity to take in wildfire debris anyway, which Riverside County officials granted the next day. Riverside County officials are now requesting help from state officials for technical assistance with the situation. They acknowledge they were notified by environmental regulators about the elevated temperatures, but declined to address whether granting the waiver was appropriate. So far, no fire debris has been taken to El Sobrante Landfill, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency overseeing the debris cleanup. But, as of Thursday morning, the landfill had remained on a list of sites that were eligible to accept this material. Since The Times inquired about the chemical reaction at El Sobrante, state environmental regulators say they have ruled out allowing fire debris to be taken there. "Debris from this year's fires has not been sent to the El Sobrante landfill nor is the site under consideration for future use for this purpose," said Nefretiri Cooley, a spokesperson for the California Environmental Protection Agency. "We are currently investigating this incident and will provide additional details as they are available." Waste Management executives say the chemical reaction has not interfered with daily operations at the 1,322-acre landfill. The affected area, they say, is about 3,000 feet away from the section of the landfill they had planned to dump disaster debris. Environmental advocates, however, were irked that the landfill had even sought permission. "I'm shocked and appalled that El Sobrante would take ash when it knows that its landfill is on fire," said Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics. "You greatly increase the public health danger to the communities surrounding when landfills are being operated like this. An out-of-control landfill can emit more [toxic] benzene than an oil refinery." The situation at El Sobrante Landfill underscores the checkered compliance history at many Southern California landfills that are poised to receive an estimated 4.5 million tons of potentially hazardous ash, rubble and soil from the federal cleanup efforts. From excessive air pollution to insufficient inspections, state and local environmental regulators have handed down dozens of violations to these waste disposal facilities in the past year alone. El Sobrante is the second landfill in Southern California, in recent years, to experience this type of scorching-hot chemical reaction — commonly called an underground landfill fire. Since 2022, operators of the since-closed Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Castaic struggled to contain noxious fumes and contaminated runoff caused by an underground garbage fire. These underground dump fires cannot be easily extinguished and often take years to peter out. Although a cause has not immediately been identified, these incidents have called into question the environmental oversight of California's landfills. CalRecycle, the state agency that regulates landfills, declined to provide a comment. In July, El Sobrante staff told the local air district the landfill had experienced a rise in highly flammable hydrogen gas and lung-aggravating dimethyl sulfide emissions — both telltale signs of abnormal temperatures inside the landfill. The pollution was emanating from a two-acre "area of concern" where landfill staff had observed temperatures climbing over 200 degrees, according to Waste Management executives. Staff also reported cracks on the landfill's surface, vapors and liquid waste seeping out. Since then, landfill workers began extracting liquid waste from the reaction area to alleviate the heat and pressure, transporting it to a waste treatment facility, according to air district records. "South Coast AQMD continues to conduct unannounced on-site inspections at the landfill and responds to all public complaints," said Nahal Mogharabi, a spokesperson for the air district. "This is an ongoing investigation." The conditions at El Sobrante Landfill mirror issues at Chiquita Canyon Landfill, where residents called in thousands of odor complaints to the local air district. Air district inspectors found white smoke venting from cracks on the landfill's surface and liquid waste bursting onto the surface in a geyser-like fashion. The Environmental Protection Agency said the reaction posed an "imminent" danger to public health and the environment, citing the toxic chemicals released. L.A. County officials eventually helped organize a temporary relocation program for residents who wanted to escape the stench and toxic fumes. Waste Connections, the owner of Chiquita Canyon, closed the landfill in December and is focusing on managing the reaction area. Federal and state environmental regulators suspected the Chiquita Canyon reaction was caused by oxygen intrusion. Similar to oil drill sites, landfills have an extensive network of underground wells that are used to extract gases produced as buried waste decomposes. But if this system fails or overdraws these gases, these wells can introduce oxygen into the waste, speeding up waste decomposition and producing heat. In addition to the air pollution, the extreme heat has the potential to damage the protective liner underneath the landfill that prevents liquid waste from seeping into the groundwater beneath and migrating to neighboring areas. Recently, residents have protested outside of some Southern California landfills to oppose the decision to dispose of fire debris at local landfills, which typically only handle garbage and construction debris. They have expressed concerns about these landfills' ability to properly dispose of potentially hazardous wildfire ash and rubble — emphasizing long-standing issues with handling municipal solid waste. In the past year, El Sobrante Landfill has been cited several times for excessive air pollution by the local air district. In that time, CalRecycle inspectors also identified violations for elevated levels of flammable methane, improper signage and failure to conduct sufficient truck inspections to ensure hazardous wastes aren't disposed at the site. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
