Humboldt commission revokes landfill permit

In what many will deem a victory for Nevadans Against Garbage (NAG), Humboldt County Commissioners unanimously voted to revoke Jungo Land & Investments’ five-year conditional use permit (CUP) extension required for the Humboldt County Landfill project to continue.

Winnemucca attorney Robert Dolan argued the Regional Planning Commission–which granted Jungo Land & Investments the permit in 2007 and permitted its extension in 2010–“abused discretion by issuing the permit extension because Jungo Land & Investments failed to show good cause the extension was necessary.”

“Jungo Investments waited one year to file the solid-waste permit and 21 months for the air quality permits,” the Silver Pinyon Journal reported.

In rebuttal, John Frankovich of McDonald Carano & Wilson, representing Jungo Land Investments and Recology, argued the delays were due to “community activists attempting to derail the project.”

The revocation of the conditional use permit can be appealed if Jungo Land & Investments requests a judicial review.

Bloggers at the NAG Web log, www.nolandfills.wordpress.com, are optimistic but still cautious.

“Although the denial of the extension of the CUP is an encouraging sign, there is no reason to think that Recology will not appeal this decision or that the permitting process will suddenly cease and that this nightmare will become just a memory,” one NAG member wrote.

Watch the deliberation (posted on YouTube by notogarbage) here:

Low Scores for Humboldt County

We had originally planned to release Scorecard’s Pollution Report Card as additional information to the last blog post, but a lot of their findings are staggering enough to stand on their own.

For instance:

“In 2002, [Humboldt] county ranked among the dirtiest/worst 10% of all counties in the U.S. in terms of total environmental releases.” Humboldt County is also Nevada’s leader in toxic chemical releases annually – with over 351 million pounds of chemicals released into the environment in 2002.

Here’s Scorecard’s list of chemicals released into Humboldt County, including over 293 million pounds of arsenic and over 38 million pounds of lead released in 2002.

Humboldt County’s Top Polluters? Newmont Mining Corporations in both Galconda and Valmy, Nevada. The other five groups? Mining operations as well.

Perhaps–from an environmental standpoint–trash is the least of Humboldt County’s worries. Perhaps it’s not. Will more trash just contribute to Humboldt’s shoddy environmental score?

After reading up on these findings, members of N.A.G. might consider contacting these top environmental polluters to tell them to stop.

Winnemucca in our textbooks!

We were as surprised (as some of you might be) to find that Winnemucca  was mentioned in one of our class texts, Wikinomics: Exploring How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything.

Authors Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams discuss the “pollution information site,” Scorecard, where “visitors to the site can type in their zip code and get instant access to a wealth of information about pollution sources in their region.”

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) launched Scorecard in 1998 as a nationwide tool for assessing environmental risks.

The authors write:

“Want to know…the biggest source of air pollution in the state of California? Scorecard’s database says it’s an ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance, California with an annual release of 1,659,872 pounds of toxic stew. Or perhaps, as you plan your next real estate purchase, Scorecard says you better sidestep Humboldt County, Nevada, where a staggering 350 million pounds of carcinogens are released annually.”

Ethics During Conflict

Transparency can be a difficult thing to maintain while covering a divisive issue like the potential Humboldt County Landfill.

Nevada Trash Talk contributor Jamie Roice spoke with Caesar Andrews–Paul A. Leonard Distinguished Visiting Chair for Ethics and Writing in Journalism at UNR—to talk about journalism, ethics, transparency and Journalism Week 2010.

Andrews said a journalist should first consider the mindset of his or her readers and viewers before creating content.

“I would start by looking at it from the perspective of the audience, and I would think through what does an audience need to know about this issue,” Andrews said. “And that’s actually going to lead to a lot of answers to other questions that crop up.”

Andrews hosted a hands-on, interactive ethics discussion Thursday, March 4 at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Audience members split into groups and considered some theoretical ethics issues from the perspectives of newspaper editors, bloggers, independent journalists and Web moderators.

For more information about Caesar Andrews and Journalism Week 2010, click here.

The End of Dumpsite 41?

By Jamie Roice

TINY TOWNSHIP, Ontario: On July 23, 2009, 2,500 people rallied to create a petition for a one-year halt of construction of the North Simcoe landfill (aka Dumpsite 41).

Watch protesters of Tiny Township face off against Ontario Provincial Police (above).

Almost two months later, on September 22, Simcoe County Counselors voted 26 to 3 in favor of the dump site moratorium.

In May of 2009, Simcoe County Council approved preliminary work on Dumpsite 41.

Following preliminary construction, locals began to complain of “murky water.”

Dumpsite 41 is located above the Alliston Aquifers whose waters are considered by scientists to be, “some of the cleanest drinking water in the world.”

Critics worry the landfill will compromise the quality of the underground reservoir’s drinking water.

The one-year building restriction did not halt the proposed landfill, but a private-members bill—if approved—would revoke the dump’s Certificate of Approval and halt the landfill for good.

Like the Canadian citizens of Tiny Township, Nevadans face a similar conflict.  The proposed Humboldt County Landfill (aka Jungo Road Dump) will be built 28 miles West of Winnemucca, Nev., atop an active aquifer in the desert playa.

Those in opposition to the Jungo Road Dump are concerned with potential fugitive dust, water contamination and wildlife impacts. They argue current studies conducted by Recology–a waste management company from San Francisco, Calif.–ignore these concerns.

Conversely, advocates of the landfill argue the site would create jobs, bring revenue of up to $ 1 million per year in fees and potentially create a recycling center.

In an editorial in a February 13 issue of Silver Pinyon Journal, Dee Holzel wrote the San Francisco waste company claimed to have met state and federal guidelines and would not fund further research.

“Recology has declined to fund an environmental impact review because they’re already doing everything that is required of them by State and Federal regulations,”  Holzel wrote.

<META name=”y_key” content=”8e9227db13027b7f”> Holzel

Play “Recycle or Trash”

What better way to understand trash than to play with it?

Do you know what's recyclable in Nevada?

As debate surrounding the Humboldt County Jungo Road Dump continues, why not relax for a minute and play Recycle or Trash – a fun catching game created by Nevada Trash Talk member Robert Mills along with partner Latasha Porter.

Catch bottles and cans with your recycling bin, and hit the space bar to use your trash bin to catch old food, cardboard and broken light bulbs.

Be quick though! The more items you catch, the faster the trash falls. Miss too many pieces of garbage, and watch the landfill pile up behind you.

Let us know your high score in the comments section below!

Recycle or Trash was created as part of The Reynolds School of Journalism’s Game Design for Journalism class taught by professor Larry Dailey. Click here to view other students’ work and try to get some high scores!

The Great Debate

The proposed Humboldt County Landfill brought a global environmental issue to the backyard of its local citizenry.

Similar challenges of waste management—which develop from the over-accumulation of trash caused by advancements in technology and increases in population—are illustrated in books like Thomas Friedman’s Hot, Flat and Crowded.

For citizens of Humboldt County, the issue is controversial and divisive.

Nevadans Against Garbage—empowered by “an alarmed discovery and euphoric enthusiasm,” as coined in Anthony Downs’ Issue Attention Cycle—have set out to stop production of the dump.

Proponents of the landfill argue the dump will create new revenue for Humboldt County – including a recycling center and several new jobs.

As production of the landfill looms, where will you stand on the issue?

Take a look around our blog and get to know the Humboldt County Landfill, then participate in an online poll.