Compost Facility Opponents Make a Stink
by Matt Carter
Fremont Argus, February 7, 2005

SAN LEANDRO — A proposal to build an industrial-sized composting facility near the tiny town of Sunol is a public policy train wreck that threatens to turn public opinion against recycling, a Sierra Club activist warned.

Saying their objections to a 600-ton-per-day composting facility along Interstate 680 have gone unheard, opponents took their case Wednesday directly to the officials who will ultimately approve or scrap the project.

For 90 minutes, residents from Sunol, Livermore, Pleasanton and Fremont aired a long list of grievances before the Alameda County Waste Management Authoritys board of directors at a meeting in San Leandro.

The authority, which is comprised of 17 cities, sanitary districts and Alameda County, plans to build a composting facility with a private company on a 40-acre site on Andrade Road along I-680.

The authority has drafted an environmental impact report that details potential impacts such as odors and traffic, and proposes methods to reduce them. Comments on the study are due by the end of the month.

Opponents say the report underestimates the impact the facility will have on its neighbors — including Sunol Glen School — and doesn't investigate potential health problems from airborne particles, such as mold and fungus.

Hazel Turners voice quaked as she told the board how she and her husband worked nights and weekends to build their dream home on Sheridan Road 20 years ago. Turner and other residents said they fear the composting facility will be, for all intents and purposes, a garbage dump — spoiling their quality of life and hurting their property values.

Were trying to give you a different perspective on this project from the perspective youre getting from your staff, said Sheridan Road resident Mary Peters. We are small in number, and we are no ones constituency. We are asking you to be our voice.

Although the board was not scheduled to make any decision on the composting facility, most of its members sat silently as, one by one, 34 people opposed to the facility made their case against it. The speakers were limited to three minutes each.

As the evening progressed, a few of the authoritys board members — including San Leandro Mayor Shelia Young, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson and Emeryville City Councilman Ken Bukowski — slipped out.

At one point, after Albany City Councilwoman Jewel Okawachi and Berkeley City Councilwoman Dona Spring also left, Union City Mayor Mark Green warned that if another member left, the board would be short of the quorum needed to vote.However, board members seemed to take note when Steve Bloom, an executive committee member of the Sierra Clubs San Francisco Bay Chapter, made an appearance.

Bloom, who also represents the environmental community on the Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board, said he has been opposed to building a composting facility in Sunol from the get-go.

Bloom said the Sierra Club will argue that a composting facility in Sunol will not help meet a goal of diverting 75 percent of waste from landfills by 2010 and violates the Alameda County charter.

By insisting on sitting the facility near Sunol over the objections of residents, Were dragging the reputation of this agency, and composting, through the mud, Bloom said.

Now the peasants are storming the castle, he told the board. There has never been a crowd like this at (an authority) meeting, and this is just the beginning.

Although members of the authority board withheld comment because the compost facility was not on the meetings agenda, chairman Mark Green said he appreciated hearing from opponents.

Theres more work to be done, thats for sure, Green said.

For more information, visit www.stopwaste.org.