Marin County is moving toward a massive expansion of the Redwood Landfill. Take action now to stop Waste Management from building a 16-story mountain of trash in San Francisco Bay!
The landfill's owner, Waste Management, Inc. (WMI), wants to create about the tallest man-made edifice between Novato and Oregon, a 16 story mountain of trash. Over 50 percent of the trash dumped at Redwood is trucked in from outside Marin. Marin County's own garbage disposal needs can be met with capacity to spare.
The dump could hardly be in a worse environmental location. It is below sea-level, next to the largest tidal marsh in California, and in a floodplain between major earthquake faults. It rests on Bay mud, is barely above groundwater in places, has no liner, and is just ten feet from San Antonio Creek, draining into the Petaluma River and San Francisco Bay. Given projections for rising sea levels, the landfill will soon be a garbage island surrounded by San Francisco Bay.
The dump is also the largest man-made emitter of greenhouse gas in Marin. Of the 1,290 tons of garbage dumped at Redwood everyday, over 50 percent is green and organic waste that could be composted and returned to the soil elsewhere.
All dumps ultimately will fail to contain their pollutants; the only question is when, and whether Marin's taxpayers will get stuck with the multi-million dollar clean-up bill.
Take Action now and contact Marin Supervisor Judy Arnold and urge her to ban green and organic waste from the dump and promote countywide composting alternatives; insist on the strongest of earthquake, clean air, groundwater, and flood protections; adopt a mitigation fee to discourage waste and fund zero waste initiatives; and insist that WMI put up a real financial guarantee to pay for the eventual environmental disaster.
Insist on the strongest of earthquake, clean air, groundwater, and flood protections. Adopt a mitigation fee to discourage out-of-county waste and fund zero waste initiatives. Insist that WMI put up a real financial guarantee to pay for the eventual environmental disaster.
For more information about the dump, its risks and alternatives, upcoming hearings, and the Green Coalition for Responsible Waste / Resource Management, go to www.noexpansion.org.
