I called Trey Strickland of the county Department of Environmental Health, the person who conducts monthly inspections of the Cold Creek Compost (CCC) facility in Potter Valley. I told him that from what I could see, the compost facility's windrows (long piles of composting materials) were not covered during the heavy rains of December and early January. He said that I was correct, that the windrows were saturated with rainwater and leachate was puddling on the pad. In fact, he said, CCC has been in violation of their use permit for the past two years, because they have not covered their windrows during the rainy seasons.
I ask him why the county has not revoked CCC's use permit because of this blatant violation. He said he didn't know; though Environmental Health has reported the violations to Building and Planning, that department has not acted on them. I then called Pam Townsend of Building and Planning. She said that CCC has been in the process of modifying their use permit for the past two years. Not covering their piles is one of the new modifications they wish to incorporate in their new permit. But she had no explanation for why the permit hasn't been pulled for violation of their Environmental Impact Report.
Covering the piles is a mitigation that CCC requested in lieu of building ponds to contain leachate or enlarging their one-acre shed to cover the piles. At first they were to cover the piles during the rainy season, October to May, but the task was too onerous for them. So they requested and were granted a change to cover during "periods of wet weather," which seems to be too burdensome for them also. Their "Best Management Practices" (which seem to satisfy the county) have been to ignore mitigations of the Environmental Impact Report, since there have never been any consequences for their violations.
We at the MEC think enough is enough, and will be writing a letter to the Planning Commission demanding that CCC's use permit be revoked.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2003
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