LopezRocks - Item

Rebuttal to San Juan County Response

In 2018, the LSWDD Board initiated talks with Russ Harvey, then Public Works Director, and liaison Councilmember Rick Hughes, and other County officials to discuss LSWDD expansion plans next door at the Public Works site. Russ Harvey indicated that it would be about 5 years before Public Works would be moving their operations to a new site. Conversations were collaborative. LSWDD volunteered to pay for a design of an expansion plan.

Between 2018 and 2023, LSWDD began making improvements to the existing small site while waiting for Public Works to move their operations. During those years LSWDD invested in an improved glass container, built a berm to cut down noise from operations, hired additional staff to provide more on-site safety between cars and pedestrians, and expanded recruitment and training of volunteers. Recently LSWDD initiated a visit by Labor and Industries to discuss site safety and operations. It was also during this time that San Juan County Council removed solid waste from the Public Works Department and placed it under the auspices of the newly formed SJC Environmental Stewardship, with Kendra Smith as director.

Moving solid waste from Public Works to a new department meant a loss of valuable knowledge, continuity and competency. In 2023 the County finally hired Wilson Engineering to do an expansion plan. LSWDD provided constructive criticism of a boiler plate template issued by Wilson Engineering. The plan called the site “garbage disposal site” which is false. The site is a Drop Box facility and the difference between the two is significant. The plan also included paving the entire public works site and putting in a commercial grade catchment system or digging a well. LSWDD suggested that the County should simply start the process of expanding Fish Bay Water District to include this essential public facility. The County’s plan pointed out a potential fish bearing stream on site (also false) and wanted a costly enclosure of the recycle plaza. The Wilson plan was further evidence that the Environmental Stewardship Department did not have any one on staff who understood anything about operating a drop box/recycle facility.

The County’s December 5, 2024 Public Relations response is a thinly veiled attempt to take over the operations of the Dump and force Lopez citizens to pay for what is County responsibility. The County insists this is not the case and yet by dictating such things as parking restrictions, pedestrian access to the Take It or Leave It (TIOLI ), requiring LSWDD to provide set days for set functions thus forcing patrons to do their business on multiple days and multiple trips and by further limiting access TIOLI, the County is changing basic operations. As one LSWDD founding Board member Dan Post has pointed out, the new Interlocal Agreement (ILA) “stinks” and shows they don’t know “how the Dump operates.”

The County’s claim that there have been multiple meetings with LSWDD is not true. LSWDD has asked for a response from the County multiple times regarding the Dump’s expansion plan and the ILA, but the various County parties continuously met without LSWDD staff and/or Board. The County and the LSWDD Board met once on the expansion plan and never on the revised Interlocal Agreement (ILA). The County toured the Dump grounds without telling LSWDD they were coming ,nor asking LSWDD about operations.

You can listen to the last discussion of the Dump, done without LSWDD’s knowledge, below but be aware that it is a very demeaning and inaccurate portrayal of Lopezians and our operations.

A final question: is the Environmental Stewardship Department using solid waste monies to fund positions in its department unrelated to solid waste operations?

If you care about this issue, it is important to contact the County asking for an extension of the current ILA, and demand that the Interlocal Agreement (ILA) be one that is signed by LSWDD.
Sandy Bishop, Founding LSWDD Board member
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•Watch the December 2, 2024 presentation to Council on the County’s website
•Read the County’s brief about the LSWDD and view presentation materials here