[USCC] Mariposa County Composting Plant

[Mike Morin]

It seems to me that a combination of source separation, in-vessel 
composting, and a more remote location could possibly work better.


Workin' for peace and cooperation,

Mike Morin

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "McNelly, Patrick" <PMCNELLY at OCSD.COM>
To: "Compost Discussion List" <compost at mailman.cloudnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2007 1:56 PM
Subject: [USCC] Mariposa County Composting Plant


> Participate in the Annual International Compost Awareness Week May
> 6, 2007 to May 12, 2007
>
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>
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>
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> http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-compost5apr05,
> 1,2313728.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california
>
> New composting plant fails the smell test
>
> Disposing of Yosemite park's garbage is a green innovation, but it
> brings olfactory distress to those living downwind.
>
> By Eric Bailey
> Times Staff Writer
>
> April 5, 2007
>
> MARIPOSA, CALIF. - Forty miles from the sweet pine scents of Yosemite
> Valley, the national park's garbage is contributing to a royal stink.
>
> In this little town on the west Sierra slope, a gleaming new composting
> plant is busy converting trash from Yosemite and the rest of Mariposa
> County.
>
> Sam Spaulding, who lives just above it, said there are days when it
> reeks like a dead animal. Other times it's like sewage.
>
> Spaulding said he doesn't mind the park depositing its biodegradables
> practically in his backyard, but "sometimes it's so strong up here it
> burns your eyes. After this thing got going - pee-u-wee!"
>
> When the $8-million composting operation opened next to Mariposa's
> landfill last year, Mariposa County officials praised it as an
> innovative, green-minded solution to the region's growing garbage
> disposal needs. Environmentally sensitive composting seemed perfect for
> a region that depends on tourist traffic heading up California Highway
> 140 to one of America's most beloved national parks.
>
> Composting also fit the environmental ethos at Yosemite, which has an
> award-winning recycling program to divert cans, bottles and tons of
> other reusable materials from its trash.
>
> As boosters envisioned it, the new plant would slash the volume of
> garbage by half and produce enough compost to eliminate any need for the
> costly 1,000 dump trucks of dirt brought in each year to blanket the
> landfill.
>
> But now, as neighbors complain about odors much worse than from the old
> landfill, county sanitation and health officials are scrambling for
> answers.
>
> "We have a vocal minority, but they're very vocal," said Dana
> Hertfelder, the county's public works director. "They never have been in
> favor of it, and the odor problem has given them something to grab on
> to."
>
> Yosemite officials say they are eager to see a remedy.
>
> In the old days, the park operated dumps right in the valley. Rangers
> used to make a show of feeding bears at the Curry Village garbage pit.
> But after World War II, Yosemite started sending its trash to the
> Mariposa landfill. Most years, trash from the park accounts for about
> 40% of the dump's refuse stream.
>
> The park and other federal agencies provided most of the money to build
> the new plant, a near twin of a composting operation outside Yellowstone
> National Park.
>
> And they're watching.
>
> "The composting facility is not working as well as it should be," park
> spokesman Scott Gediman said.
>
> Sanitation officials say the plant's odor problem appears to stem from
> the idiosyncrasies of trash disposal in Mariposa County.
>
> Residents of the rural region used to simply burn their trash in empty
> 55-gallon oil drums. But that pioneer-style practice fell to the state
> air board's regulatory rules a few years back. Because the county has
> never offered municipal garbage collection, most residents took to
> loading household waste in pickups for routine dump runs.
>
> Unfortunately, that flood of rubbish - 14,000 tons a year - is not the
> stuff of which good compost is made.
>
> Outside of Yosemite, most residents don't bother to recycle. Instead,
> they send a blizzard of empty soft-drink bottles and other plastics into
> the plant's eight concrete-walled composting vessels.
>
> The result is a malodorous mix.
>
> Hertfelder, the public works chief, is optimistic that a little public
> education on the merits of recycling can help the county's composting
> cause.
>
> Meanwhile, plant managers have fixed a balky biofilter that wasn't
> properly sifting out the smell and installed a deodorizing spray system.
>
>
> If the remedial steps don't reduce the stench, there's talk of enclosing
> - at an additional cost of $200,000 - the portion of the plant where the
> finished compost is stored outside.
>
> "I do believe we'll get the odors under control," Hertfelder said. "As
> much as Ruth gets mad at me, it is a landfill, and trash does have an
> odor."
>
> Hertfelder was referring to Ruth Sellers, a well-known Mariposa civic
> player who lives in a tidy ranchette across California 49 from the
> plant.
>
> During planning stages a few years back, Sellers was among the plant's
> most vocal opponents; she would have preferred that the county find a
> new dump far out of town. An inveterate Republican, Sellers also
> objected to county leaders taking pricey junkets to tour composting
> plants.
>
> That was then, and the smell is her main concern now.
>
> "What's coming out of there isn't compost. It's garbage," she said.
> "They're speeding up the rotting, is all."
>
> By building the plant, Mariposa is catering to the wishes of Yosemite,
> Sellers added. "We're put at a disadvantage for the benefit of the
> park."
>
> Not all of her neighbors want to criticize Yosemite, which they know is
> a prime draw for tourist dollars.
>
> "If Yosemite wasn't there, we wouldn't get any business," said Mike
> Butler, an auto mechanic who has lived all of his 45 years on a hill
> overlooking the landfill. "My problem is with that composting plant.
> It's a white elephant."
>
> Last Thanksgiving, the odor reached such putrid proportions that
> Butler's mother canceled the usual feast at her trailer on the family
> property. Sometimes, he said, the smell seeps in under the door.
>
> Up the road, Spaulding, who carves tombstones, says the foul smell has
> chased off one of his employees who became nauseated from it.
>
> Three times in recent months, Spaulding lamented, customers shopping for
> headstones turned tail and left, complaining about the stink. "Probably
> lost $3,000 in business," he said.
>
> eric.bailey at latimes.com
>
>
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