2003 Annual Report: Solid Waste Facilities

On this page...

• Environmental Justice
• Solid Waste Site Cleanup
• Farm and Ranch Grants
• Closed, Illegal, and Abandoned Sites

Environmental Justice

Public Resources Code 41701(e) requires a county when amending its Countywide Siting Element (CSE) to include a description of the actions taken by the county to solicit public participation by the affected communities, including, but not limited to, minority and low-income populations. While there are not prescribed specific actions that must be taken in order to satisfy the requirement, the Board is required to provide guidance to jurisdictions on the types of actions that could be taken. The Board will be updating its model Siting Element Web page to include environmental justice strategies and resources, including the Cal/EPA Advisory Committee on Environmental Justice’s Recommendations Report, as well as information from other State agencies. This information will help counties develop appropriate environmental justice strategies when amending a CSE.

Solid Waste Site Cleanup

In 2003 the Board approved more than $8.2 million for 12 cleanup projects ($6,552,520 for board-managed projects and $1,672,300 for grants); see www.ciwmb.ca.gov/LEACentral/GrantsLoans/SolidWaste/. The board-managed emergency response and final cleanup project of the controversial Crippen illegal disposal site in the City of Fresno was completed in September. In this tenth anniversary year of the program, the Board completed its largest and most complicated successful cleanup project-the Crippen site-and approved and leveraged the largest amount of funding ever. The program has progressively increased the number of cleanup projects and total funding since its inception (see first chart below). The Board has continued to increase its use of grant funds to assist in cleaning up urban nuisance and stormwater trash illegal disposal sites since 2000 (see second chart below).

Cumulative Project Funding Solid Waste Cleanup Program

Solid Waste Cleanup Program Number and Types of Approved Sites

Back to Top

Farm and Ranch Grants

The Board revised its program application materials and procedures to implement Chapter 628, Statutes of 2002 (SB 1328, Chesbro), which became effective on January 1, 2003 (see www.ciwmb.ca.gov/LEACentral/GrantsLoans/FarmRanch/). Together with expanded outreach efforts by the Board, the program changes made by SB 1328--increasing the maximum grants award from $50,000 to $100,000 per site and extending eligibility to Native American Tribes and Resource Conservation Districts--have significantly increased utilization of this program. In November 2003, grant applications in the amount of $747,963 were approved, exceeding annual amounts since inception of the program in 1999. The graph below illustrates these funding amounts for 1999-2003.

Cumulative Project Funding Farm and Ranch Cleanup

Closed, Illegal, and Abandoned Sites

The Board continued to assist LEAs and prioritize closed, illegal, and abandoned (CIA) disposal sites. When appropriate, the Board provides referral for cleanup through the Solid Waste Cleanup Program. Continued progress in prioritizing CIA sites for field investigation and, if appropriate, enforcement and cleanup (Priority A and B sites) is shown in the following graph:

CIA Site Summary*

*Note: As of 1/04: 1292 sites archived; 1056 prioritized (75 A, 110 B, 994 C/D); 483 to prioritize

Back to Top | 2003 Annual Report Home | Next Section>>>