Yolo County supervisors this week approved the acquisition of nearly 300 acres of property adjacent to the Yolo County Central Landfill over the objections of landfill neighbors.

The county wants the land — located directly west of the landfill — for a number of future reasons, including to create a buffer between the landfill and private property to the west; to provide additional land for the dump’s groundwater mitigation activities; to provide a space for a stormwater detention basin; and as a source of soil to cover garbage cells at the landfill.

No current landfill project is planned for the property; rather, the county has been watching for such property to become available and when this one did, they jumped — agreeing to pay $2.39 million for it. Without a current need to use it, the land will likely remain grazing land for a number of years.

Neighbors, however, are worried about what lies ahead, as well as the fact that no environmental review was required for the purchase.

Billie Martin is a longtime farmer with 160 acres of certified organic alfalfa located a quarter-acre away from the land in question. She told  county supervisors on Tuesday that many of the planned uses for the property could negatively impact her business.

“I don’t pollute, because I am organic, but I am concerned about the backlash,” she said. “If you guys pollute my farm, they are going to shut me down. I’d like the board to consider that we contribute to the clean food for the world.”

Another neighbor, Christine Harlan, expressed concerns about what she called “a whole host of problems,” including flooding potential, waste water dispersion and the impact on endangered species in the area.

Catherine Baganz said she had been planning to buy property nearby herself, “but now I have concerns about the transparency of the county.”

“I just learned … that there was an exemption from the (California Environmental Quality Act). This is close to Davis, this is an area that affects all of us,” she said. “It’s kind of a big deal. Expanding the landfill by 300 acres is quite a lot.”

County staff said no new landfill cells or operations would be located on the property and any future uses, such as using the property for landfill cover soil, would be preceded by a full environmental review process.

“Ideally it would be closer in time to the landfill’s need for the property,” said Deputy County Counsel Phil Pogledich. “Instead, we’re acquiring it for the future. We don’t have projects in even a conceptual level of details. In the absence of those details, there is no requirement that we perform a CEQA review.”

County Supervisor Duane Chamberlain, an alfalfa farmer himself, said he sympathized with farmers’ concerns, adding, “I hate to see farmland taken out.”

But he added that the county faces a dilemma in finding sources of soil to cover garbage cells.

Every day, after garbage has been trucked in to the landfill and flattened by bulldozers, thick layers of soil are poured over all of it.

“It takes a massive amount of soil,” Chamberlain noted. “I’d rather haul it in from some place else but we can’t seem to make this work.”

The board voted unanimously to purchase the property.

— Reach Anne Ternus-Bellamy at [email protected] or 530-747-8051. Follow her on Twitter at @ATernusBellamy

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Garbage is unloaded at the Yolo County Landfill. This week, the Yolo County supervisors approved the acquisition of nearly 300 acres of property adjacent to the landfill for unknown future use. Fred Gladdis/Enterprise file photo

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