Critics Oppose Recycling Center’s Move to Site Near Homes, Businesses in El Dorado County
By Cathy Locke, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.
May 8–Citizens for Responsible Planning rented the Union Mine High School theater and invited the community to a meeting last week to learn about plans to move a major recycling center to Industrial Drive, west of Missouri Flat Road in the Diamond Springs area.
Although the group formed in opposition to the relocation, “I’m not here, and the group’s not here, to ask you to make a decision for or against” the project, spokesman Chris Gaither told an audience of more than 80 people.
The goal, he said, was to make people aware of what is proposed in their community and how to participate in the decision-making process. Too often in El Dorado County, Gaither said, people don’t complain until a decision has been made.
The audience appeared to be united in opposition to the proposal by Waste Connections Inc. to move the materials recovery facility from its current 10-acre site on Throwita Way, west of Highway 49, to 17 acres on the south side of Industrial Drive.
The firm provides garbage collection service to much of western El Dorado County under franchise agreements with the county, the city of Placerville and the El Dorado Hills and Cameron Park community services districts. The materials recovery facility handles recyclable items including electronic and household hazardous waste, and yard waste. It is the only such facility on the county’s western slope.
Company officials have said they are prepared to invest about $8 million in a new 45,000- square-foot center that would allow all processing to be handled indoors. Without the new facility, they have said, the company would have difficulty handling expected growth.
Vacating the current site also would make way for the proposed 450,000-square-foot Diamond Dorado Retail Center and the Diamond Springs Parkway, a new connector road linking Highway 49 and Missouri Flat Road.
Folsom-based Waste Connections was not represented at the community meeting, and company officials did not return a reporter’s calls for comment.
Gaither said he recognizes the need to expand the recycling center and promote economic development, but the proposed site, ringed by homes and businesses, is the wrong place for an operation that would generate noise, odors and heavy truck traffic.
Citizens for Responsible Planning reports it has collected more than 2,400 signatures as well as a list of more than 100 businesses opposed to the expansion plan.
Gaither said he lives on Wedge Hill Road, within “wafting distance” of the Industrial Drive parcel. There isn’t an adequate buffer between the site and other businesses and homes, he said.
Noting that the recycling center would be near the end of a cul-de-sac, he questioned whether the area could be evacuated quickly in case of fire.
Other people noted that the site is within a short distance of five schools, and school buses would be sharing Missouri Flat Road with trucks going to and from the recycling center. Several residents said they already have difficulty entering and leaving Missouri Flat Road at intersections that aren’t controlled by traffic lights.
“Is there someplace else in this vast county that the dump could go? … We all need to ask questions,” Gaither said. “Why are we doing it here?
Jeff Holm, a Diamond Springs resident, advised people writing letters to focus on the effect the project would have on the community at large, rather than on their personal property or daily lives. He suggested citing the potential impact on land values, schools businesses, area retirement centers, air quality and traffic.
Information about the proposed materials recovery facility project is available on the county Planning Services Web site at www.co.el-dorado.ca.us/ Planning/index.asp.
For information about Citizens for Responsible Planning, e-mail Leonard or Laurel Stroud at stroud_l@sbcglobal.net.
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