Our VIew: A slew of skeptical questions await the transfer
station proposal
It’s likely time to dump the idea of putting a waste transfer station on Highway 152 east of Gilroy.
South Valley Waste Disposal and Recycling moved its headquarters to a 19-acre site across from Gilroy Foods a few years ago. We raised concerns then about the trucks returning to headquarters and impeding traffic, and, of course, the potential smell as the area’s waste volume grows in the next few decades.
SVWD&R, which provides garbage services for Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy, is making it clear that a move it proposed a few years back has gone from the backburner to the frontburner. The aim is to move its San Martin transfer station to the land surrounding its headquarters.
There’s no debating that the San Martin transfer station is inadequate. It currently handles 400 tons of waste each day, and traffic problems are a nightmare on Saturdays at the Llagas Avenue facility – especially right before the too-early 1pm close when employees are over-eager to cut off customers and go home.
A new facility, of course, would increase that capacity and also allow it to sort and sell recyclable materials.
Company officials say the transfer station would be completely enclosed and at the back of its site. Manager Phil Couchee says that motorists will not notice the 34-foot-high, 75,000-square-foot building at the eastern gateway to Gilroy.
But others aren’t so sure.
“There’s a beautiful aroma of onions and garlic coming out of Gilroy Foods. I think it might be rather challenging to try to blend those smells,” City Councilman Crag Gartman said recently. It’s a serious concern.
Neighbors of the facility – the many retailers who occupy hundreds of thousands of square feet of restaurant and shopping space, and the potential industrial users – might also have concerns about the smell, and about traffic.
The prospect of huge trucks loaded with trash and recycling entering and exiting into the company’s headquarters on this overloaded road is worrisome.
We’re with Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro whose assessment is this: “I think it’s the wrong location.”
Finding appropriate sites is not an easy task, but the company has made no effort, at least publicly, to identify other possibilities.
As part of its environmental process, it will have to do just that and should do so in earnest. Additional traffic on a crowded roadway and the potential of an unfavorable stink wafting over Gilroy make identifying alternative sites imperative.
Perhaps SVWD&R can mitigate the impacts. Perhaps the company can prove through extensive testing under off-shore flow weather conditions that the smell will not impact Gilroy.
Councilmembers should remain skeptical while they listen to the company’s arguments. They should also view the move as an opportunity to negotiate. To wit:
– There should be more recycling opportunities for Gilroyans.
– There should be more hazardous waste drop-off dates.
– There should be a reasonable cap on rate increases.
– Gilroyans in the county area under Gilroy’s sphere of influence should have weekly recycling pick-up just like their neighbors in the city limits.
– The transfer station should be open all day on Saturday and on Sunday until 2pm.
Before any approval for a move, the city should conduct an extensive customer survey to see how satisfied customers are and determine what could be improved. As we know from the recent scandal revelations involving San Jose’s mayor, garbage collection is big and lucrative business.
City officials are our advocates, and residents deserve top-notch service.
