Western Placer agency approves expansion project plans

The Western Placer Waste Management Authority (WPWMA) board of directors has voted to certify the final environmental impact report (EIR) for the agency’s Renewable Placer Waste Action Plan, verifying the document complies with the California Environmental Quality Act. Directors have also voted to approve one of two initially proposed plan concepts that allow for expansion of WPWMA operations across its existing properties, including facilitating a local circular economy.

Roseville, California-based WPWMA says board members voted at the board meeting Dec. 8. According to the WPWMA, the finalized waste action plan project will ensure Placer County, California, meets residents’ and businesses’ waste disposal and recycling needs, complies with regulations, supports planned regional growth and creates opportunities for innovation, such as diverting food waste and additional recyclables through a $120 million renovation of WPWMA’s mixed-waste material recovery facility.

“We’ve heard directly from our member agencies that it can be hard to keep residents up to date when regulations change,” WPWMA Executive Director Ken Grehm says. “Our waste action plan shows that we have our residents’ and businesses’ convenience and quality of life top of mind and can guarantee they are in compliance as regulatory changes comes.”

WPWMA says its board of directors approved Plan Concept 2 evaluated in the EIR, which designates the WPWMA’s western property for future landfill development and the eastern property for compatible manufacturing and technology to facilitate a local circular economy. WPWMA says its staff also recommended this plan concept as it allows the WPWMA to realize its long-term objectives and goals in a cost-effective, environmentally conscious manner and affords the WPWMA the greatest degree of flexibility to adapt to future regulatory and technical developments.

WPWMA says the approved project also received input from the community, a consultant team, an advisory committee composed of key staff from each of WPWMA’s member agencies and a stakeholder working group consisting of nearby commercial entities, developers, environmental groups and residential neighborhood representatives.

“I appreciate staff’s work throughout this long process and all the input we have received from the community,” says Dan Karleskint, board chair and council member for the city of Lincoln, California. “It’s a big step forward for the region. The approved plan will support western Placer County for nearly a century, and I think its serendipitous the way it all worked out in the end.”

WPWMA says the approved project is subject to the California Environmental Quality Act and that it plans to inform decision-makers and the public of the potential environmental impacts and mitigation measures associated with the proposed projects.