Plans to Expand Composting Operation at Redwood Landfill Moving Forward

Novato’s Redwood Landfill is moving forward with plans to expand its composting operation that would triple the amount of material it can process.

The landfill already takes in 170 tons of compost material per day, such as food scraps, lawn clippings and other yard debris from all over Marin County and Petaluma. The green waste is then turned into a product called WM Earthcare, a plant nutrient popular with gardeners and many grape growers, which management points to as testament to their commitment to reducing waste.

“With the expansion of our composting facilities at the Redwood Landfill, we will be able to meet the high local demand for WM EarthCare compost (our sustainable solution to organics), accommodate increased participation by Marin residents and introduce organics from restaurants and grocery stores,” said Daniel North, district manager of Redwood Landfill and WM EarthCare. “Approximately, 30-40 percent of the waste stream comes from food waste, and we are diverting these materials from the landfill to make compost.”

But the expansion of the composting facility--as well as the company's larger goals to take in more garbage--have continued to raise concerns.

Last Thursday, Marin County Environmental Health officials, landfill reps and residents met to discuss the plans and respond to questions about the planned upgrades.

These include concerns that a bigger operation will mean more truck trips in and out of the facility, located on Highway 101 three miles north of Novato, something landfill operators deny. 

Another worry is the smell, since foul odors have been a problem in the past, so much so that a group of residents filed a lawsuit in 1997, according to the Marin Independent Journal. It was settled the following year and residents living near Redwood say the odor has gone away.

The landfill is now owned by a different company, Texas-based Waste Management, and operators say smells will not be a problem because the new composting facility will use a different system that keeps piles of organic material capped, said Daniel North, the manager of Redwood.

The company says the plan was been carefully whetted and has many protections, including a pond where run off water is collected and regular monitoring of the site. 

Another concern is the location of the site, close to San Antonio Creek and the San Pablo wetlands, an area prone to flooding.

The landfill was built in the ‘50s and is not lined, raising worries about groundwater contamination. In 2011, a group calling themselves the No Wetlands Landfill Expansion Alliance filed a suit in Marin Superior Court arguing that the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board overlooked factors such as rising sea levels, levees that were too short and earthquake faults when it granted Waste Management a permit to expand the operation.

A Marin County judge agreed, but Redwood has appealed the decision to the Court of Appeals in San Francisco. A decision is expected before the end of the year, according to Redwood landfill attorney Osha Meserve.