More than $800,000 approved to close two landfills
EL CENTRO — The Hot Spa and Imperial landfills last year reached capacity, and the Imperial County Department of Public Works Solid Waste/Recycling Division no longer stores waste at the two facilities. Now the county is spending more than $820,000 to start the closure process.
Closing a landfill is not a slow process or cheap.
The Imperial County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a contract with Geosyntec Consultants for $484,326 for the final closure and post closure maintenance plan for the Imperial Solid Waste Site, as well as $337,776 to do similar work at the Hot Spa landfill.
The actual construction closure date for the Imperial landfill is expected to be in June 2024.
The more than $822,000 to begin the process to close the two landfills will not be the only cost, as the county will have to maintain the two landfills even after they are closed.
Supervisor Ray Castillo said residents often complain about their solid waste bills after a landfill near them closes, not realizing there is a significant cost to maintain the site after the closure.
Work like capturing methane gas and capping the landfill are things that must be done when closing a landfill, Castillo said.
The public living near either of the landfills will still have access to them to dispose their solid waste.
They are still operating as transfer stations, where the public can take their household waste (less organics) and discard it, Public Works Director John Gay said in an email.
“Then at the end of the day our staff relocates the waste received at these two landfills to either Niland or Calexico, where we still have two operating landfills where waste is discarded at its final resting place.”
A reduction in hours of operation at Hot Spa and requiring organic material to be sent to either Niland or Calexico are the only significant impacts to the public from the site closures.
A transfer station is a large container people use to throw waste before it is trucked to an open landfill.
“Those residents and business owners in the county jurisdiction who have a solid waste permit may use any of the transfer facilities or operating landfills under our control,” Gay said in the email.
The public works department is still moving forward with a financial study to look into changing the solid waste program to one that is more fiscally sound.
Castillo said hopes the Mesquite Regional Landfill on State Route 78 heading toward Blythe will someday be able to receive solid waste through the Los Angeles Joint Power Authority. The trash-by-rail project, which has been in the works since the late 1980s has never received any waste LA County due to reduced municipal waste from recycling and availability of landfill capacity nearer by. One reported projection estimated it won’t be put to use until at least 2027, if ever.
However, if it is eventually put into operation, Castillo said the millions of dollars generated in tipping fees could be used to help operate Imperial County’s solid waste program.