LAKE COUNTY — On Thursday, the Lake County Planning Commission will consider whether a proposed expansion of the Eastlake Landfill in Clearlake would conform to the county plan and meet environmental impact standards.
The Eastlake Sanitary Landfill, located less than two miles east of Clearlake, is the primary landfill in Lake County and was first permitted as a solid waste facility in 1998. It currently occupies about 35 acres, taking in an average of about 130 tons of waste each day, or about 47,000 tons per year.
But the facility’s capacity could be maxed out by 2024.
According to the Lake County Public Services Department, the amount of waste projected to be created in Lake County will go up by about 1.3 percent per year, and the 660,000 cubic yards of useable airspace the landfill has left is “expected to be exhausted in five to six years (as soon as year 2024),” the county writes.
To handle the amount of waste the county projects will be necessary, the county is proposing to expand the facility to about 56.5 acres, an addition that would extend the life of the landfill by 22 years or more, according to county projections. More than 1.8 million cubic yards of additional airspace would be gained.
If approved, the expansion would be developed in phases, adding a total of about 22 adjacent acres to the existing landfill facility over a number of years.
In addition to more fill space, the project would add a paved two-lane access road from the landfill entrance to the scale house and bag dump, as well as drainage control facilities around the project’s perimeter. A 2,500 gallon potable water tank, a recycling and buy-back center, and a new restroom building are among the other components of the proposed project.
The landfill’s hours of operation would be unchanged by the expansion project, the county’s initial study for the expansion states.
Environmental impacts
The Lake County Community Development Department (planning division) is recommending that the planning commission approve the project as consistent with the Lake County general plan.
In addition to that approval, the commission will also consider the likely environmental impacts of the proposed project—which have been identified in a study led by the Lake County CDD.
The project is noted in the CDD’s environmental study to have a potential to increase some pollutants, largely due to the use of vehicles for construction and operation of the facility. As a result, rules like 15 mph driving speeds and limited equipment idling times would be adopted to mitigate their emissions.
The project would impact about eight acres of blue oak woodlands, according to the study. To mitigate the loss of these oaks, a similarly-sized stretch of oak woodland nearby has been proposed to be protected with a conservation easement, while another oak woodland would be restored and additional oaks would be planted.
Overall, according to the study, the project would pose some significant environmental impacts which could be appropriately addressed by mitigation measures. Because of this, no environmental impact report would be required for the project.
The complete environmental study and project description can be viewed online in the planning commission’s agenda, which is posted at countyoflake.legistar.com.
Thursday’s meeting begins at 9 a.m. and will be held virtually due to ongoing coronavirus concerns. Public comments can be submitted by email to PlanningComment@LakeCountyCA.gov.
Please note the agenda item number being addressed in your comments. To join the Zoom meeting, please send a request to the above email address for Zoom Meeting details. Click the following link when the meeting is in progress to watch it: https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx.
