---

---

Governor Gavin Newsom’s veto of a bill regarding treated wood waste wood have left local contractors and builders in a bind after the first of the year when it comes to disposing it.

The Del Norte Solid Waste Management Authority was contemplating asking those who do have treated wood waste to hold onto it while “we try to work this out,” Director Tedd Ward told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Wednesday.

But the California Department of Toxic Substances Control has come up with a variance that may allow DNSWMA to temporarily accept the material after Jan. 1 while state Legislators work on a long-term solution, according to Ward.

“We need to work with our local enforcement agent to make sure we have the same understanding,” Ward said. “It’s a very good bit of news. This looks like a hopeful resolution that won’t be putting contractors in a difficult (position). That is our deep hope.”

On Tuesday, Ward asked the DNSWMA Board of Commissioners to sign onto a letter to the California Environmental Protection Agency regarding Newsom’s Sept. 29 veto of state Senate Bill 68. This bill would have repealed the sunset date for managing and disposing of treated wood in a composite lined landfill — standards that have been in place since 2004.

According to the Dec. 1 letter to CalEPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld, as of Jan. 1, 2021, treated wood waste in California would have to be stored and treated as hazardous waste and transported to a hazardous waste landfill for disposal.

“If you’re building something in California and you’re meeting the building code, you’re using treated wood,” Ward told commissioners on Tuesday. “The way we have been managing treated wood ends at the end of this year and there isn’t a good alternative that is already in place.”

The previous law had allowed customers to dispose of treated wood waste at the Del Norte Transfer Station as long as it made up less than 5 percent of a mixed load, Ward said. As of Jan. 1, however, if a customer’s load has treated wood waste, it’s considered hazardous waste and that person will be turned away, he said.

On Tuesday, Ward compared to someone showing up with a load of trash, while having two-thirds of a quart of motor oil.

“Once it becomes designated as hazardous material it can’t be mixed in,” he told commissioners.

According to Ward, the landfill in White City, Oregon, which accepts Del Norte County’s solid waste, would not accept treated wood either since it would be considered hazardous in California.

“Oregon landfills have a law that says if it’s hazardous and it’s illegal to dispose in California it’s also illegal to dispose in Oregon,” Ward said.

According to the letter the DNSWMA signed onto, hazardous waste, which will include treated wood after Dec. 31, can’t be on the generator’s site longer than 90 days. There are also storage and labeling requirements that can be cumbersome for consumers, the letter stated.

To avoid the illegal disposal of treated wood, the DNSWMA along with other solid waste agencies statewide in its letter to the CalEPA, suggested that a variance would allow the material to be managed under the current system.

Meanwhile, the state legislature would come up with a long-term solution or would provide a “more reasonable transition” to a more manageable system for disposing treated wood.

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control moved ahead with such a variance, according to a letter from Director Meredith Williams to Kathy Lynch, of Lynch and Associates, who had written a letter Dec. 2 to Blumenfeld.

“We hope that more protective, longer term solutions can be found to replace the continuation of the alternative management standards and disposal in solid waste landfills,” Williams wrote. “It’s important to recognize that the hazards associated with treated wood not only affect the waste management system. They also impact consumers and users of treated wood and the environment in which it is used in its many applications. Alternatives to hazardous wood treatment chemicals and opportunities to reduce the amount of those chemicals used and hazardous waste generated, need to be considered and explored, rather than continuing to accept that the system put in place in 2004 is the best and only solution.”

Before Williams’ letter was forwarded to him, Ward said to accept treated wood, the DNSWMA would have to update its permits related to the management, storage and processing of hazardous waste and other materials brought to the transfer station.

The DNSWMA would then have to establish a rate and adopt a rate ordinance, a process that takes three months, Ward said.

On Tuesday, Joel Wallen, general manager of Hambro WSG, which operates the Del Norte County Transfer Station, said its facility has to have a state permit to accept hazardous waste. The landfill in White City, Oregon, wanted to work with the DNSWMA and Hambro to take treated wood, but couldn’t do it, he said. Wallen said the facility didn’t figure it could fight the State of California.

As far as storing the material on site, Wallen said Hambro would need a site permit. Only three facilities in the State of California can take treated wood, he said.

DNSWMA Commissioner Lori Cowan pointed out that many local contractors don’t have the means to store treated wood. They don’t have a job site or a yard, she said.

The new requirements regarding treated wood also applies to those who may be adding onto their home, Cowan said. She pointed out that she herself have several home projects she will be working on that requires using treated wood.

“I’m an average homeowner in the county with a normal lot,” she said. “What are the neighbors going to say when I start piling up wood waste?”

DNSWMA Board Chair Blake Inscore, noting that the situation is untenable, said the letter to CalEPA should also be forwarded to State Sen. Mike McGuire and Assemblyman Jim Wood, Del Norte County’s representatives in Sacramento.

Inscore’s colleague, Crescent City Mayor Jason Greenough, added that the letter should be forwarded to Newsom’s office.

“People are either going to toss it in the bushes or toss it in a fire,” Greenough said of the treated wood. “And that’s not a good situation either.”

Documents:

• Dept. Of Toxic Substances Control Dec. 16 letter

---

SHARE →