A coalition of environmental groups are calling on local officials and regulators to shutter two controversial dump sites that have long operated in the Napa Valley hills near Calistoga.
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
August 14, 2024
A plan to close Napa Valley’s controversial Clover Flat Landfill and move waste to the Potrero Hills Landfill in Suisun City is moving forward.
A Waste Connections representative confirmed Monday at a special Upper Valley Waste Management Agency meeting that the company will submit a closure plan to Napa County’s Local Enforcement Agency and state officials in early 2025.
It marked the first time the closure had been discussed publicly.
“Our decision for the closure is based solely on the economic viability of the landfill facility,” said Adam Gooderham, division president for Waste Connections.
The agency will review the plan in early 2025, according to Waste Connections regional engineer Dave Brown. Then bidding for a contractor to carry out the closure will likely moving forward in early 2026.
The actual closure process, which will involve mass excavation of the landfill and a capping process, is estimated to take about two years, and last into 2027.
“While we strive for a one-year construction, it rarely happens,” Brown said at the meeting.
Public hearings on permit modifications and approvals needed for the closure process — including options for either delivering waste to bunkers before transporting it to Potrero Hills Landfill or directly unloading trucks onto delivery trailers — will be held in the future, Brown said.
The landfill has a lengthy history of environmental and safety violations, and current and former workers have also filed a number of complaints with state regulators.
Waste Connections, one of the nation’s largest waste companies, took over the site from the local Pestoni family, which had owned and operated the landfill for decades, in 2023, along with another Napa Valley facility, Upper Valley Disposal Service on Whitehall Lane. But problems have persisted.
That includes water sampling by regulators in early 2023, which found the same contaminants in a downstream creek as those identified at the landfill.
And in August, federal investigators visited Upper Valley Disposal Service and the home of St. Helena City Council member Eric Hall, who is married to Christy Pestoni, former CEO of the business that operated both waste sites. Pestoni now works as part of Waste Connections’ local operations team.
Brown said at the meeting Waste Connections wasn’t allowed to comment on ongoing investigations, though he confirmed the company has had site visits at the landfill.
Gooderham noted there will be a number of operational and public impacts of the closure process, in part because an objective is to get foot traffic out of the Landfill site prior to closure.
But he said there won’t be changes to the regular waste collection process, and any increased costs from shipping waste to Potrero will be the company’s responsibility, due to its franchise agreement with the county.
Self-haul material will no longer be accepted after the closure, though it will be allowed until then, Gooderham said. The onsite buy-back recycling redemption area will also close, but Waste Connections is working to relocate it or offer a mobile option.
The recycling area will remain open for customers without mandatory recycling service until the closure, and green waste will be hauled either to Potrero Hills Landfill or the Whitehall Lane site, Gooderham added.
Gooderham also said Waste Connections intended to keep all its employees at the Clover Flat Landfill through the closure process. They hope to move employees to vacant positions at nearby Waste Connections-run companies in the future, he said.
Former St. Helena Mayor Geoff Ellsworth, a long-time critic of the landfill, said it was encouraging to see the closure plan and that it would benefit health and safety of the Napa Valley and waste workers.
He said the Potrero Hills Landfill was a much safer option. Though, work needs to continue to address contamination problems at the landfill, he said, and not shift problems to the Whitehall Lane site.
“As was expressed by Whitehall Lane neighbors, the mess can’t just be moved down the hill,” Ellsworth said.