Governor Davis mortgaged the health, safety and welfare of California. Then he defaulted on the mortgage.

California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) authorizes municipal landfills throughout the state to use certain hazardous wastes as daily cover. These wastes include Contaminated Sludge, Contaminated Soil and Auto Shredder Waste.

Mixing hazardous wastes with municipal organic waste produces designer toxins that threaten our water and air. The CIWMB (Governor’s appointees) encourages this practice as a means of disguising the amount of garbage being dumped. This is obviously a significant financial benefit for the landfill owner/operators. It’s also a benefit to the generators of the hazardous waste who no longer have to pay the high price of toxic disposal.

The mixing of these hazardous wastes with municipal solid waste is dangerous and must stop!

For three years I have urged the Governor, Cal EPA, Department of Toxic Substance Control (DTSC), State Water Resource Control Board (SWRCB) and CIWMB (more Governor’s appointees) to stop this illegal and dangerous practice. I have filed Notice of Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Violations and Intention to File Citizen Suit. From the beginning, I have attempted to encourage those responsible to resolve the issues in a cooperative manner, away from the courtroom. I have had no success.

I have aggressively pursued the assistance and cooperation of every major environmental organization, including Sierra Club, Natural Resource Defense Council, and Bay Keepers. They informed me that solid waste issues are neither glamorous enough nor profitable enough to interest them.

At one point, the agencies were about to sit down and resolve the problems cooperatively. They abruptly changed their minds after Waste Management, Inc. (the largest private landfill owner/operator in California) contributed $85,000.00 to the Governor’s re-election campaign.

The public has a right to know that their health, safety and welfare and our environment means less to Governor Davis, his agency appointees and top civil servants than his brand of “pay to play” politics.

Rick Lymp

Right2know.org