Mendocino County Solid Waste Management Authority’s Role Questioned

Ron Orenstein brought an agenda item forward to the Willits City Council Wednesday for discussion, where council members made it clear they had no interest in disbanding the Solid Waste Management Authority, nor did the MSWMA board of directors have any interest in doing so at its meeting the next day.

Orenstein said the continuing role of MSWMA was first brought up at an April MSWMA board meeting during an ongoing discussion about the new Central Coast Transfer Station, which is to be situated off Highway 20 three miles east of Highway 1. MSWMA General Manager Mike Sweeney’s intention to retire also apparently raised questions of MSWMA’s future.

“MSWMA was formed in 1990, ostensibly to deal with the closure of a landfill, and to seek other alternatives to collecting solid waste in Mendocino County,” Orenstein’s City Council agenda item stated. “It is questionable if that role is still pertinent, and if there is a more efficient way to deal with solid waste in Mendocino County.”