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Santa Monica®
City Council Meeting: June 28, 2011
Agenda Item: 3
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Martin Pastucha, Director of Public Works
Subject: Refuse Disposal and Recycling Facilities
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that City Council authorize purchase orders be issued to the
following California-based companies: Commerce Refuse-To-Energy Facility, Southeast
Resource Recovery Facility, Community Recycling, Puente Hills Landfill, and. Chiquita
Canyon Landfill; and to one Arizona based-company, Sunshine Canyon Landfill, to
provide ongoing landfill and recycling services. The annual amount over the next five
years will not exceed $9,582,000 per year.
Executive Summary
The City collects waste, recyclables, green/yard waste, and food waste citywide from
residents and businesses. These materials are delivered to either the City-owned and
operated transfer station, Southern California Disposal, or the City's recycling
contractor, Allan Company. The materials are then transferred to vehicles or roll-off
containers for final disposal or processing of recyclable materials. In addition, the City-
owned and operated transfer station accepts construction and demolition materials,
white goods, appliances, tires, electronics, and landscape materials. These are also
separated at the transfer station and transported to various disposal sites, waste-to-
energy facilities, or processing facilities to recycle. Staff recommends that purchase
orders be issued to the vendors listed above to provide ongoing mix of landfill, refuse
disposal, and recycling services to the City over afive-year period at a total cost not to
exceed $9,582,000 annually.
Discussion
The City uses the Commerce Refuse-To-Energy Facility, Southeast Resource Recovery
Facility (SERRF), Community Recycling, Puente Hills Landfill, Chiquita Canyon Landfill.,
and Sunshine Canyon Landfill because of their proximity, availability, and lowest fee for
disposal. Community Recycling is also the most responsible processor and recycler of
green waste, food waste, and construction and demolition debris. Since disposal sites
are regulated to accept up to a maximum amount of tonnage daily, the City must have
several sites available to transport waste materials in the event a landfill facility reaches
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its maximum daily capacity prior to the City completing waste transfer on any given day.
Currently, the gate rate at the landfills is increasing annually between 13 to 15 percent
with no flat rates offered. In November 2013, Puente- Hills Landfill is scheduled to close,
and gate rates at the remaining sites in the Los Angeles region are expected to double.
This has prompted staff to search for long-term disposal options.
Vendor Selection
There are seven active landfill facilities in the Los Angeles County. Of the seven
facilities, two can only be used for trash collected in the City of Los Angeles and two are
located in the Palmdale/Lancaster area, which makes use of these locations
problematic due to the driving distance and cost. The City currently uses the remaining
three landfill facilities: Puente Hills in Whittier, Chiquita Canyon in Castaic, and
Sunshine Canyon in Sylmar.
Puente Hills Landfill, owned and operated by the Los Angeles County Sanitation
District, has always been and continues to be the primary disposal facility for the City.
With the anticipated closure of Puente Hills Landfill in November 2013, the available
option would require that trash tipped at the Puente Hills Landfill facility be transferred
into rail shipping containers and hauled by rail to the Mesquite Regional Landfill in
Imperial County, which would double the expected cost of disposal. Based on this
projection, staff began making arrangements for the City through alternative disposal
facilities to address the long-term and cost-effective operational needs through the use
of privately-owned and operated Chiquita Canyon and Sunshine Canyon landfills. The
City began taking waste to these facilities in FY2010-11 because of a need for an
alternate facility when Puente Hills reaches its daily waste limit, and to establish a long-
term working relationship.
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Disposal Cost
Per Ton
Trips Tipping Fee Including Daily Cost
Facility Travel Time Per Day Per Ton Travel Per Truck
Puente Hills Landfill 2 hours 3 $38.26 $50.80 $ 2,743.20
Chiquita Canyon Landfill 3 hours 3 $28.00 $58.30 $ 3,148.20
Sunshine Canyon Landfill 2 hours 3 $36.71 $49.25 $ 2,659.50
Based on current operations, staff anticipates that the City would take at most 17
percent, or 15,000 tons, of the total 89,000 tons disposed in landfills to one of the two
alternative facilities annually. This would occur on days when Puente Hills has reached
its daily capacity and no longer accepts waste on that day. The, City has to dispose of
the waste on a daily basis due to health and safety issues and requirements of ,its
transfer station permit issued by the State. To ensure the City conforms to State
regulations, staff proposes that alternate landfills be utilized in the following order:
® First alternate: Chiquita Canyon in Castaic
® Second alternate: Sunshine Canyon Landfill in Sylmar
The City would utilize Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Castaic as its first option for disposal
when Puente Hills Landfill closes. Chiquita Canyon Landfill would add an additional
one-way distance of nine miles to the transfer vehicle trip, compared to Puente Hills.
Sunshine Canyon Landfill in Sylmar, owned by Republic Services Inc: (corporate
headquarters is located in Phoenix, Arizona), is the City's second option for disposal to
Puente Hills. Sunshine Canyon is recommended for its proximity to Santa Monica and
freeway accessibility. This facility is actually four miles closer to Santa Monica than
Puente Hills; however, understanding the City's policy regarding Arizona-based
companies, it would only be utilized if Puente Hills and Chiquita Canyon are not
available.
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In addition to maintaining flexibility in addressing health and safety concerns, there are
added cost and time impacts as well. The extra time the transfer vehicle has to travel
for the additional nine miles one-way to Chiquita Canyon Landfill will increase the cost
of completing the final transfer per day because of the need for overtime at the end of
the day.
For the 15,000 tons expected to be hauled to alternative landfills, the increased cost
could be as high as $113,000 for FY 2011-12. If Chiquita Canyon Landfill has reached
its daily capacity or is closed for the day and staff is not able to utilize Sunshine Canyon
Landfill because it too is closed or its use is not authorized by Council, these loads
would be taken to the City's third alternate, arefuse-to-energy facility located in either
the City of Commerce or the City of Long Beach, provided they have not also reached
their daily capacity. The use of these refuse-to-energy facilities would add a 10-percent
premium to the cost of disposal.
Based upon the identified cost increases and the health and safety impacts, staff
recommends that the City Council authorize the agreements with the identified vendors
including Sunshine Canyon Landfill, operated by the Arizona-based company Republic
Services Inc., as the disposal option if Puente Hills and Chiquita Canyon Landfills are
not available. These facilities are recommended because they are the most cost
effective and efficient means for the City to provide resource recovery and waste
disposal services and they allow the City to operate within the requirements of its
transfer station permit.
Staff will continue to work with the Los Angeles County and other jurisdictions on finding
alternative disposal options with the anticipated closure of Puente Hills Landfill in 2013.
Staff will return to Council in the next year with identified options and an analysis of cost
and rate impacts.
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Financial Impacts & Budget Actions
The combined total amount of the purchase orders to be issued in FY2010-11 is
$4,791,000. Funds are available in account 27441.555070 Recycling/Disposal Fees.
Budget authority for subsequent years will be requested at each biennial budget cycle
for Council approval
Prepared by: Kim Braun, Resource Recovery & Recycling Manager
Approved: Forwarded to Council:
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Martin Pastucha Rod Gould
Director of Public Works City Manager
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