Agenda - 12-07-2009 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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Based on these findings, the SWAB recommended that solid waste management efforts concentrate on getting the County's transfer station sited, permitted, designed, built, and operating, as well as continuing the County's successful and aggressive recycling efforts that are reducing the amount of waste to be landfilled. Concurrent with the site selection process as described below, Olver has conducted a second review of available technologies. Furthermore, Olver conducted in -depth interviews with local commercial transfer stations located outside of Orange County and performed detailed cost evaluations considering the alternative of using these existing stations in lieu of construction of a County transfer station. The conclusion of Olver's studies was to re- affirm the findings of the GBB report and the need for the Orange County transfer station. 2.2 Site Selection The objective of the site selection process was to identify the available candidate sites for a transfer station and then to systematically reduce that list of candidate sites to a manageable number through a series of progressively detailed technical screenings. The purpose of using this system was to reduce subjectivity and to limit the number of sites requiring detailed evaluation. Through the process of collaboration between the BOCC and the public, three categories or sets of criteria were developed and applied in the evaluation of possible transfer station sites. These categories include exclusionary criteria, technical criteria, and community- specific criteria. The initial screening applied the exclusionary criteria to properties to eliminate from further consideration sites not having specific -site characteristics. Briefly, exclusionary criteria include the stipulation of areas where development is prohibited by federal, state, or local laws or regulations. Exclusionary criteria also include consideration of land use, zoning requirements, watershed protection, and other factors that may significantly impact the environment, facility costs, or project implementation. For example, sites beyond a 12 -mile radius of the County's projected waste generation centroid were eliminated because of the haul distance for the collection trucks. Some of the exclusionary criteria were used to assure that there was adequate space on a candidate site without infringing on limiting site conditions such as wetlands and overly steep slopes. The presence of these limiting conditions on a property in itself was not exclusionary, so long as there was adequate space available on the parcel for construction and operation of the transfer station unencumbered by those conditions. After removal of the excluded sites, the remaining 243 sites were screened through two additional cycles using the technical criteria, ultimately resulting in a list of ten finalist sites. These ten sites were then scored both using the Technical Evaluation Criteria and the Community- Specific Environmental Assessment — Paydarfar Site 4 September 30, 2009