1999 Accomplishments and Priorities

California Integrated Waste Management Board

The six-member California Integrated Waste Management Board is responsible for protecting the public's health and safety and the environment through management of the estimated 56 million tons of solid waste generated in California each year.

To accomplish this, the Board works in partnership with local governments, industry, and the public towards achieving a 50 percent reduction in the amount of waste disposed by the year 2000, while continuing to ensure environmentally safe landfill disposal capacity. Helping promote the development of economical markets for recyclable materials in California is part of the Board's mission, which it does with technical, financial, and permitting assistance.

Another aspect of the Board's mission is the timely clean up of illegal and/or abandoned dumps and waste tire sites. The Board can direct available funds to remediation operations that significantly threaten communities or sensitive natural resources.

Accomplishments from First Half of 1999

1. AB 2136 Cleanup Program – Sites Cleaned Up. The AB 2136 Cleanup Program has successfully cleaned up four projects. The first, a Del Norte County illegal disposal site, was funded through a Local Enforcement Agency (LEA) grant. Cleanup was completed in March 1999. The Highway 37 illegal disposal site a VFW property in Vallejo followed, with cleanup operations completed in May 1999. The last two sites completed in June 1999: Hilltop Drive in Redding and Mt. Diablo State Park in Contra Costa County.
2. State Minimum Standards Training – May, June 1999. The LEA Training Program focused on State Minimum Standards for landfills, transfer stations, and material recovery facilities. The two-day program was conducted in eight locations throughout the state in May and June 1999. Over 300 LEAs and operators participated, discussing key landfill and transfer station standards, standards with regional importance to the representatives and solid waste facility operators.
3. East End Project. The IWMB, in partnership with the California Energy Commission, Air Resources Board, Department of Health Services and the Department of General Services, worked on incorporating sustainable building measures into the specifications of State office buildings. The team reached consensus on green building measures included within the project budget. Qualified bidders are preparing proposals that the environmental team will review in October 1999.
4. Model State Agency Waste Reduction and Procurement Policy. At its July meeting, the IWMB adopted "Waste Reduction Policies and Procedures for State Agencies". This is a guidance document for all State agencies and is modeled after the Board's in-house waste reduction program, drawing upon resource efficiency information shared with California businesses. Its provides California State departments, agencies, boards, and commissions a framework to develop their own waste reduction and recycled content product procurement policies, and goals, to: (1) demonstrate State government leadership and responsibility assisting local government meeting California's solid waste reduction goals; (2) show environmental leadership conserving natural resources; (3) maximize budget resources through the efficient use of materials, time, and labor; and (4) further compliance with laws requiring State agency waste reduction and buy recycled activities.
5. Sustainable Building Conceptual Plan. The Sustainable Building Conceptual Plan is an effort to capture the enormous economic and environmental benefits available in California's expansive real estate portfolio for the State, local, and private sectors. A team of leading green building experts provided ideas and a review framework for the conceptual plan, which was approved by the Board in April 1999.
6. State Agency Buy Recycled Campaign (SABRC). Out of 133 agencies, 113 submitted reports for FY 97/98 (84 percent). The reports indicated that of the $44,737,000 in reportable purchases made by all State agencies, $24,483,218 was spent on reportable recycled content product (RCP) purchases. Several large agencies failed to submit a 97/98 report and reportable products obtained through service contracts and public works were not included in the submitted reports. IWMB staff estimate that the approximately $45 million of reportable purchases are under-estimated by a factor of 10 to 20.
7. RMDZ Training Workshops – June 18, 1999. IWMB held the first of four RMDZ (Recycling Market Development Zone) regional workshops in June to inform participants on how to develop Dynamic RMDZ Teams and discuss joint marketing and outreach techniques.
8. Annual Used Oil Block Grants ($11.2 Million to 250 Local Jurisdictions). Pursuant to PRC section 48653, the IWMB shall award grants to local jurisdictions on a per capita basis. At least $10 million from the Used Oil Recycling Fund is available each year. Over 525 local jurisdictions participate in the program by operating used oil collection programs that serve over 99 percent of the state's population.
9. Tire Sites Cleaned Up. The waste tire program remediated illegal sites through two avenues: the enforcement program and the tire remediation cleanup fund. Since January of this year, the program's joint efforts have resulted in the clean up and legitimate disposal or re-use of over 3 million waste tires in California. Through the enforcement program, 55 sites and 2.6 million tires have been cleaned up by the owners and/or operators. Seven sites and approximately 495,000 waste tires were cleaned up through the tire remediation contract.
10. 21^st Century Policy Project. The 21^st Century Policy Project seeks to bring all interested parties together to form a new consensus for the future of solid waste management in California. This process began last year and will continue throughout the calendar year. The Board has been working with constituents to identify issues and trends that will shape solid waste management into the next decade. The Future Search Conference, referenced below, was a part of this effort.
11. Future Search Conference – March 9, 1999. The IWMB held a 21^st Century Future Search Conference to identify issues and trends that will shape solid waste management in the next decade. Representatives of the Board, its staff, local governments, the solid waste industry, and business sector participated.

Priorities for Second Half of 1999

1. Construction and Demolition Regulations. IWMB staff are currently developing construction and demolition (C&D) and inert debris regulations.
2. Review of Use/Overuse of Alternative Daily Cover. The Board is currently evaluating the use and monitoring of waste-derived alternative daily cover (ADC) at municipal solid waste landfills to ensure there is no excessive use. Excessive use of ADC would constitute a violation of State minimum standard regulations, be inconsistent with the governing statute establishing the regulations, and could result in a detrimental effect on the composting industry.
3. East End Project and Other State Construction Projects. The East End Project team will score proposals in October 1999 and Department of General Services (DGS) will announce the winning Design-Build team in November. In a separate effort, DGS, in partnership with the Board, California Energy Commission, California Air Resources Board, and Department of Health Services is developing a tiered approach to routinely incorporate sustainable building practices into DGS construction projects.
4. Agreement between IWMB and DGS on Increasing State Agency Purchases of Recycled Content Products. DGS and the IWMB State Agency Buy Recycled Campaign (SABRC) staff are developing a joint action plan for increasing recycled product procurement by State agencies. Once approved, the action plan will help guide and coordinate efforts between the Board and DGS.
5. RPPC Compliance and Enforcement. For the first time, the Board will consider taking enforcement action against a number of companies for failure to comply with California's Rigid Plastic Packaging Container law in 1996. The Board will also adopt an overall RPPC recycling rate for 1997. Because this rate is less than the statutory minimum of 25 percent, and because it has been declining steadily since 1995, the Board may expand its enforcement efforts.
6. Green Building Conceptual Plan Implementation. Staff will present the implementation plans for the grant program and education, training and guidelines development program to the Board in September 1999. Efforts to establish an executive level committee will follow and will be linked to an existing forum for high-level leadership.
7. Deconstruction Activities at Mather Field and Fort Ord. Deconstruction of a number of single family homes at the former Mather Field Air Force Base will commence in August or September and will be completed by November 1999. These homes are to be used as the subject of hands-on deconstruction training for unskilled workers to be arranged by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Authority and local developer Kaufman & Broad. Staff is investigating the possibility of supporting a similar deconstruction training activity for the closed military training base at Fort Ord.
8. Disposal Reporting: Base Year Adjustment. There are measurement accuracy issues regarding achievement of the 25 percent and 50 percent waste diversion requirements for California. Many of these issues relate to base-year problems, particularly with allocating waste to each jurisdiction. Many of the jurisdictions that have been noticed for hearings in September and October 1999 have measurement issues. The IWMB is working to address measurement accuracy issues with the Disposal Reporting System.
9. Local Government Compliance Orders. Section 41825 of the Public Resources Code (PRC) requires the IMWB to review implementation of each jurisdiction's Source Reduction and Recycling Element (SRRE) and Household Hazardous Waste Element (HHWE), at least once every two years to determine progress in implementing the selected programs and reaching the 25 percent diversion requirement in 1995 and 50 percent diversion requirement in 2000 (PRC Section 41780). Approximately 80 jurisdictions have received notices of hearings in September and October 1999 on failure to implement a SRRE. At those hearings, compliance orders will be issued for those jurisdictions the IWMB finds are not in compliance or not making good faith efforts toward compliance.
10. SB 1066 Process. The IWMB is working on procedures for jurisdictions to petition for a time extension to meet the 50 percent diversion requirement in 2000 or a reduction in the 50 percent requirement. The law allowing time extensions and reductions sunsets on January 1, 2006. Rural jurisdictions may qualify for on-going reductions or time extensions under other sections of the law.
11. 21^st Century Policy Development. Board members and staff are developing a scenario detailing the "desired future" of solid waste management. This fall we will be working with stakeholders on approaches related to the "desired future" which may then be developed into policy papers. We will continue to seek input from all parties interested in forming a consensus around the next generation of solid waste policy.

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