OUT OF STATE, OUT OF MIND
Editor's note: This is the first in a series highlighting the issues associated with California toxics. The series will continue in subsequent editions of the Record-Bee.
In September 2020, workers in Brawley near the Mexico border began loading dump trucks with soil from the site of an old pesticide company. As an excavator carefully placed the Imperial County waste into the vehicles, a worker sprayed the pile with a hose, state records show. Another was on hand to watch for any sign of dust. The trucks then drove through a wash station that showered dirt off the wheels and collected the runoff water.
There was a reason for such caution. Shipping documents indicate the soil was contaminated with DDT, an
insecticide the federal Environmental Protection Agency banned decades ago and that research has linked to premature births, cancer and environmental harms. The Brawley dirt was so toxic to California, state regulation labeled it a hazardous waste. That meant it would need to go to a disposal facility specially designed to handle dangerous material — a site with more precautions than a regular landfill to make sure the contaminants couldn't leach into groundwater or pollute the air.
At least, that would have been the requirement if the waste stayed in California. But it didn't.
Instead, the trucks — carrying nearly 1,500 tons of California hazardous waste — rumbled just over the Arizona border to the La Paz County Landfill, a municipal solid waste dump several miles from the Colorado River
Indian Tribes' reservation.
The journey is a familiar one for California's toxics. Since 2010, nearly half of California's hazardous waste has left the Golden State, according to figures the state released last summer.
Some of this estimated 10 million tons has gone to specialized facilities, but California government agencies and businesses have also transported much of it over the border to states with weaker environmental regulations and dumped it at regular municipal waste landfills, a CalMatters investigation has found. These are cheaper alternatives with more limited protections and oversight than sites permitted to handle hazardous waste. A CalMatters analysis of state shipping records shows that two of the most heavily used by California are near Native American reservations — including a landfill with a
spotty environmental record.
While there is nothing illegal about the practice, critics contend it raises troubling questions for a state that loves to pat itself on the back as an environmental leader and a shining example of how to protect the planet.
“California shouldn't have stringent laws and then send this waste out of state. How is that fair?” said Cynthia Babich, an environmental advocate who was on a state advisory committee several years ago looking at hazardous waste. “You're just shifting the burden. It's really not addressing the problem.”
CalMatters spent four months examining how California handles its hazardous waste — analyzing state and federal databases with millions of shipping records, reviewing regulatory filings and archival documents, obtaining hundreds of pages of