Toru Miyoshi, former member of the Santa Maria City Council and Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, landed another bombshell in his commentary published in the Santa Maria Times on December 20, 2005. It seems Santa Maria's City Council has a contract with Central Coast Remedial Resources, Inc., 2325 Skyway Drive in Santa Maria, to "accept Non-Hazardous Hydrocarbon Impacted Soil (NHIS) as foundation layer material" in the Santa Maria landfill.
In the August 25, 2005, article in the Santa Maria Times, John Zhao, Santa Maria city solid waste and utilities engineer, stated that, "Santa Maria has been accepting what is called Non-hazardous Hydrocarbon Impacted Soils (NHIS) for three years."
What wasn't mentioned in that article is that CCRI (which is co-owned by A. J. Diani Company) is actively advertising our landfill across the Western United States as the answer to other cities' hazardous waste problems.
CCRI's advertising brochure (in an 8" x 11" tri-fold, ready for mailing, inside/outside views of brochure) states that "NHIS material includes, but is not limited to (emphasis added), soils from oil field sumps, tank farm locations, pipeline leaks, or petroleum product spills. Call today for approval criteria (emphasis added) . . . . For information on NHIS acceptance criteria, profiling requirements, and pricing, please contact: Don Vossler, CCRI, . . . ."
Miyoshi asks, "Why would the city hire a private firm to solicit more hazardous waste from all over the Western states under the guise of NHIS to dump in our city landfill?"
Miyoshi also wants to know, "Why is Santa Maria so anxious to use contaminated soil when they have the funds to do it right? The city of Santa Maria has millions of dollars in its post-closure fund account. They can do it right by bringing in clean foundation materials to make the proper grade for drainage and final clay cap to seal the site."
The tin soldier agrees. Why would the City of Santa Maria risk poisoning our future water supply?
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