LAKEPORT >> An agreement for a non-water release Corrective Action Plan (CAP) at the Eastlake Landfill was approved by the Lake County Board of Supervisors.
Eureka-based SHN Consulting Engineers and Geologists, Inc.,will prepare the plan, which is required by state law. CalRecycle regulations require owners of landfills to obtain a third-party assessment of the potential remediation costs of “water release” events and “non-water release” events.
An example of a water release event a release of pollutants to bodies of water or groundwater.
“This is one of the six or eight reports that the water and waste board decided to give us in about a six week period at the beginning of this year,” Lake County Public Services Director Caroline Chavez said.
The purpose of the project is to provide assessments of reasonably foreseeable impacts and the remediation costs that may result from events such as earthquakes, floods, tsunami and fire, according to Chavez.
These two assessments then serve as the basis for determining the amount of financial resources that landfills must be set aside to address the identified corrective actions.
“Basically it asks ‘What are you doing to do in the event of different kinds of emergencies when it is not a water issue?’” Chavez explained
Eastlake landfill’s “water release” corrective action plan is up to date and not part of the scope of work in the proposed agreement. Staff did solicit proposals from various consultants for this work, but others either did not have the necessary experience or were not available to perform the work in the time frame we need.
According to the contract, the work will be completed within 10 weeks and will include an evaluation of action required, cost estimates, a long-term performance evaluation and determine provisions “to restore the integrity or establish the adequacy of a damaged or inadequate” containment structure, environmental monitoring or control system.
After a site visit, SHN will submit a draft of the plan for county review and comments, which the company will address prior to completing the final draft. The plan will then be submitted to the county again, as well as CalRecycle for review.
Altogether, the contract totals slightly less than $17,500 which includes all time and expenses. A total of $1,500 will be used for project management, while $2,600 will be allocated for the site visit and the remaining nearly $13,400 with be used for the CAP report.
The board approved the agreement with a 4-0, District 3 Supervisor Jim Steele was absent from the meeting.
“It’s called an unfunded mandate,” District 1 Supervisor Jim Comstock said, citing that the state is requiring the CAP, but is not funding it.
Contact J. W. Burch, IV at 900-2022.
