Officials rejected contentious plans for a new Glenn County trash facility Tuesday, though a scaled-back version may yet emerge.
After meeting for well over four hours, Glenn County Supervisors overturned a decision by the planning commission, narrowly rejecting environmental documents, essentially killing the project as envisioned.
The planned facility near Hamilton City was meant to replace the nearly full county dump near Artois.
Rather than a landfill, the plan, by KVB Inc., was for an innovative multi-stage process. Garbage would be intensively sorted for additional recyclables. Then the remainder processed with trash-digesting enzymes, producing fertilizer and energy.
It ran into spirited opposition. Sabrina Teller, an attorney representing opponents, raised issues about the project’s scale, the potential for groundwater and stream contamination, noise, odors and traffic.
“The fact that you almost bought a pig in a poke doesn’t mean you have to complete the purchase,” Teller said.
Although many locals spoke against it, opposition wasn’t universal. Orland resident Celene Edwards spoke favorably about similar facilities she had visited elsewhere.
“Are there concerns or problems? You bet your sweet fanny,” Edwards said.
She warned that garbage bills would skyrocket if the dump closes and the county fails to provide an alternative.
Rather than shipping trash elsewhere, KVB envisioned possibly importing trash, however, the applicants couldn’t prove it had any customers.
Questions emerged about the project’s economic viability if it were smaller.
The board invited the applicants to re-envision the project on a much smaller scale.