LUCERNE >> District 3 Supervisor Jim Steele has been developing advisory councils for the seven communities in his district. The most recent hopes to finally solve a problem that has troubled Lucerne and the surrounding area for years.
The Lucerne community growth boundary advisory council is looking into cleaning up their garbage problem, bot in town and in the sparsely populated hills.
Steele said much of the problem has to do with curbside garbage pick up service. With the cost to homeowners prohibitive, residents prefer to transport trash to a dump. Unfortunately, some skip this process entirely.
“I take my trash to the dump once a week, but some people wait a month and sometimes it doesn’t make its way out to the dumps,” Steele said.
Illegal dumping has left ravines and other areas in the hills full of garbage and some streets in town spotted with litter.
Steele said there is an option for universal garbage collection. This would allow residents to receive bins and weekly curbside collection, as is available in Lakeport and Clearlake. The service would allow residents a discount for pickup.
“When you got your food bill, medicine bill, water bill, rent and trash, and you can only afford four out of the five, which one do you cut out?” Steele said. “So a lot of people cut out the trash.”
He added that it is cheaper to service more people and get everything done at once then to have garbage services come for only one house in the town.
“Originally to get garbage service for your home individually can run around $18 I think. Getting Universal Garbage Services can cut the cost of that and service everyone in the area,” Steele said.
Currently recorded on the CalRecycle Landfill Tonnage Report, in 2015 Lake County had 48,827 tons of waste put into the landfill. It states in the report that not all of this may have been produced in the county, but was dumped there and had to be recorded.
Heather Jones, Informational Officer for CalRecycle said the state agency does not track litter in streets, but the Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act was put in place to help stop littering and keep the state clean.
“The act has successfully reduced litter of materials in the CRV (California Refund Value) program — glass, plastic and aluminum beverage containers — by having consumers pay a deposit on those beverage containers at the point of purchase and get the deposit back when they return them for recycling,” Jones said.
She added that tire piles and big illegal dumpsites can become breeding grounds for mosquitos and rodents, which can both carry diseases.
A continuing discussion of the issue will be at the MRTH monthly meetings, perhaps leading to a solution.
