Agenda - 04-21-2009 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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State Clearinghouse March 16, 2009 Page 3 The most important omission is discussion of the private vendor option. Members of the public have presented evidence to the County that private vendors stand ready to handle the county's garbage production at a lower cost to the County than the cost of building and operating this facility. See Exhibit D for a chart showing this. No waste transfer station in Orange County would be required (the vendors operate existing transfer stations in neighboring counties). This option would not require siting any facility, and is therefore essentially the `no action' alternative that the applicant is required to discuss in the environmental document. In addition, it has been demonstrated to be a practicable alternative, and its omission is therefore absolutely unjustified. It is worth noting that the consultant that prepared the EA is the same consultant that will be involved in design of the waste transfer station. This is a consultant with a vested interest in discounting other alternatives. This alternative was clearly known to the County and its consultant prior to preparation of the EA. This failure to discuss or even acknowledge this alternative makes the EA inadequate. Misrepresentation of the sitincLprocess - The EA describes a site selection process that sounds thorough and thoughtFul. The EA describes `collaboration' between the County Commissioners and the public, and describes a process with three sets of criteria that narrowed 242 sites down to this one and one other. Significantly, the EA was prepared by the same consultant that conducted the site selection process. The proof of this process, however, is in the pudding. This vaunted process has resulted in the same poor decision that is typically reached in local government processes without such elaborate trappings: a location was chosen that was as far from the concentration of voters as possible and that makes sense in no other way. This can be seen from the comments herein. It can also be seen from comments by the Orange County Solid Waste Director to the press recently: "As far as Bingham sites, I think I'll keep my opinion to myself on how wise it is for those to be the final sites," said Orange County Solid Waste Management Director Gayle Wilson. "However the Board of Commissioners' criteria -that they developed is what led us to those sites. It wasn't a staff recommendation. It was their own set of priorities that resulted in those properties being identified. Are they open to reconsideration? Idon't know. Maybe. I even hope so. But that's where we are now, and we'll see where it plays out." Independent Weekly, March 11, 2009.