Articles | Resources
Articles
Calls for Napa to Relocate Landfill | Blake Gray | Wine-Searcher | November 26th, 2021
Neighbors Sue Upper Valley Disposal Over 'Odorous' Facility | Kiley Russel | May 14th, 2021
Landfill Woes Napa's Latest Concern | WineSearcher.com | Blake Gray | October 27th, 2020
Fire at Clover Flat, health issue at UVDS | Gaye G. Cook | Oct 6, 2020
Clover Flat Landfill climate concerns | Geoff Ellsworth | St. Helena Star | June 8, 2021
Landfill/composting fire risk | Geoff Ellsworth | St. Helena Star | May 18, 2021
Upper Valley Disposal Denies Neighbors' Nuisance Allegations | Bay City News | June 11, 2021
“This is not something that’s been incurred overnight; this has been going on for a very long time,” Calistoga Mayor Chris Canning told the landfill’s general manager Bryce Howard, referring to a series of incidents that included several fires at the facility in 2018. “There’s not a lot of credibility here now. I don’t have faith that your organization has the ability to correct this problem. This is just one mess after another, and another, and another.”
A county inspection of Clover Flat last week revealed erosion on one of the landfill’s trash-holding cells and a 4-foot gash in its clay lining, as well as completely filled tanks of leached-out liquids and non-functioning sump pumps, according to Morrison. The discoveries led to the county issuing its notice, which he said did not indicate “an immediate or dire public health problem” but was made “out of an abundance of caution.”......
Even if the latest landfill incident is contained without a crisis, Canning, the Calistoga mayor, speculated the extent of the troubles at Clover Flat may require local governments to find a new and better-equipped operator in the long run.
“We may have to look at the possibility that the industry has outgrown this company’s ability to do it,” he said.
Napa County Planning Director David Morrison, whose department operates the LEA that oversees the landfill, said the concerns that arose from the September fire were superseded by the massive wildfires that started the next month.
“We have tried to work cooperatively with the facility and have made numerous requests and direction since June of this year,” he told the UVA. “Just speaking for myself – not speaking for the county, but speaking for our department – our patience is growing thin.”
“Until there is an established pattern of compliance that matches the pattern of fires that we’ve seen in the last five years, we will continue to aggressively pursue this enforcement action,” Morrison said
St. Helena sues waste disposal company for major sewage leak | Sep 10, 2014
Resources
Below are websites where the inspection reports by the LEA (Local Environmental Agency/State authority) can be viewed.
CalRecycle for Clover Flat Landfill (View the years 2018 and 2019 to see the violations at the landfill.):
https://www2.calrecycle.ca.gov/SolidWaste/SiteInspection/Index/2015
CalRecycle for Upper Valley Disposal:
https://www2.calrecycle.ca.gov/SolidWaste/Site/Summary/2026
This website is for the State Water Resources Control Board - pollution tracking at Clover Flat Landfill:
https://geotracker.waterboards.ca.gov/profile_report?global_id=L10001344067
This website is for the State Water Resources Control Board - pollution tracking for Upper Valley Disposal:
https://geotracker.waterboards.ca.gov/profile_report?global_id=L10003472156
Trailer
Documentary Filmmaker Brian Lilla spotlights Clover Flat Landfill
“In the mountains above California’s Napa Valley a garbage dump is polluting the Napa watershed. The family-owned Clover Flat Landfill has a 60 year legacy that includes storage of unauthorized radioactive waste and leaching of highly-toxic fluorinated PFAS, known as forever chemicals, that spill over into drainages leading to neighboring properties and eventually the Napa River. To make matters worse dozens of fires have spontaneously ignited at the landfill at a time when the region has recently endured some of California’s largest wildfires. Further south a recycling and composting facility, owned by the same family as the landfill, sparks similar fears of fires and water contamination.”