June 24^th SJ Planning Meeting is coming !

Please sign up for stopping Newby Expansion!
Please sign up for next 30 years clean water and air!

We have been fighting with Republic’s Newby Island Landfill expansion for 7 months now. We sacrifice some but we also have achieved something amazing that no group before had ever reached.

The fighting is still going!

The June 24^th meeting is the setting for choosing odor study consultants. First of all, we are concerned about the odor study’s independency. If the odor study consultants are paid by Republic Services, it is not an independent odor study. If the odor study consultants have any connections with Republic Services or nominated by Republic Services, the conflict of interest will definitely damage the study’s independency. Secondly, a landfill can pollute not only the air, but can also pollute the ground water and soil, so the study can’t be limited just to air pollution. Therefore, a comprehensive odor study or environmental impact study which includes water, air, and soil impacts should be considered.

Especially the groundwater should be a major item to be studied when measuring the environmental impacts.  In 2009, the certified environment impact report didn’t touch the ground water issue and kept forgetting to look into it. surprisingly, for years, even though Zanker Landfill had found 1,4 Dioxane in ground water testing, no one took any action and Newby Landfill still kept excluding 1,4 Dioxane from water testing items.

1, 4 Dioxane, the carcinogen substance, has been found in many closed landfills. Newby landfill has being operating over 80 years, and practiced using sewer sludge as its daily garbage cover material for a long time which contains plenty of 1,4 Dioxane original sources. Furthermore, its neighbor landfill has found as high as 99 ug/l 1,4 Dioxane in all sampling wells except one that didn’t have a water sample. The two landfills are 0.5 miles apart separated by San Francisco bay water.

1, 4 Dioxane is extremely water soluble and very hard to remove from water.

What worries me is the San Francisco Water Board has promised us to do Newby Landfill groundwater sampling in three months but later it has been changed to uncertain time of next year or years later. It seems like someone is not willing to clear the doubts and fears in public. Why?

Zanker landfill found 1,4 dioxane in groundwater.  Neighbor Newby landfill still can exclude 1,4 dioxane testing for years and will not include 1,4 dioxane testing in the future. How and why?

Do you want answers to those questions?  Please attend the meeting on June 24^th at SJ city hall.

Folks, we need to take action, otherwise governments will do nothing without the public pressure. Please sign up for the June 24th meeting NOW!

Meeting time : June 24th 6:30PM. If you don't have time to arrive early, you can join at 8PM.

Meeting location: SJ city council chambers 200 E Santa Clara St., San Jose

Parking: SJ City Hall underground parking lot (free for meeting attendees)