Sonoma County weighs how to bring back composting

Black soldier flies eat decomposing food scraps, turning it into natural fertilizer. Anaerobic digestion converts yard debris into organic compost in an oxygen-starved environment while making natural gas out of the methane produced. Compost facilities incorporate worm farms to break down food and yard waste into high-quality compost for backyard gardeners and large-scale farmers.

Sonoma County waste officials are considering such technologies as part of a plan to bring locally produced compost back to the county, roughly a year after a high-profile Clean Water Act lawsuit forced the shutdown of Sonoma Compost Co., a private operation at the Central Landfill west of Cotati that since 1993 served as the largest local producer of compost.

Between now and Nov. 14, the Sonoma County Waste Management Agency is seeking input and assessing interest from businesses with experience in composting, as well as entrepreneurs who may be interested in launching new local composting operations. Requests for specific proposals are expected to open early next year.

Hauling the 88,000 tons of yard waste and food scraps produced in the county to four outside sites in Novato, Ukiah, Napa and Vacaville costs ratepayers $4.5 million per year, according to waste agency officials, up from $2.5 million when it was handled locally. Garbage bill rates have ticked up slightly, compost has become more expensive and transporting organic material to neighboring sites ratchets up emissions of greenhouse gases associated with producing compost, county waste officials said.

Supervisors expressed support this week for the idea of multiple sites run by the private sector, a reversal from previous plans to have the waste management agency operate a central site. Private composting business could halt the practice of trucking away compostable materials, reduce waste management agency costs and eliminate future risks of legal action.

“We’re all very motivated to have a local facility that handles our compost,” said Supervisor Shirlee Zane, the county’s representative on the agency’s board. “Any type of winning proposal has to come with some sort of investor funding. We at the agency are not in the position of spending any more dollars on any particular facility.”

The closure last October of Sonoma Compost Co. prompted frustration among local farmers and environmentalists concerned over pricier compost and increased greenhouse gas emissions associated with the hauling of organic material to operations outside Sonoma County.

Until May, plans were underway to build a state-of-the-art, $55 million compost facility at the Central Landfill. Construction stopped after a second lawsuit, challenging the site’s environmental review, was brought by the same group of neighbors who filed the previous Clean Water Act lawsuit. The agency had spent nine years and $1 million to study the feasibility of the site, and it had gained support last summer from the agency’s board.

“We’re trying to put this puzzle together,” said Patrick Carter, executive director of the Sonoma County Waste Management Agency, which oversees countywide compost operations. “It could be one huge site, or it could be multiple smaller sites - we’re really open to new ideas and new technologies.”

The agency could handle oversight of a future composting program, even if it were operated by the private sector, Carter said. He said six proposals are currently under discussion and there has been local, statewide and international interest, including from Europe and Japan.

Future sites would be subject to what could be an expensive and lengthy environmental review process to assess impacts on water and air quality, endangered species and traffic. Any waste management agency proposal would require approval by the county and its nine cities.

Several local compost experts and existing companies have expressed interest in developing new local operations, including Alan Siegle and Will Bakx, co-owners of Sonoma Compost Co., who kept their business name.

“There is a huge deficit of organics in the county right now for farmers, landscapers and backyard gardeners,” said Siegle, who, together with Bakx, handled composting for the county and its cities from 1993 until last year. “It’s something we love. We were a big part of the solution in the beginning, and we want to be a part of the solution again.”

Mark Soiland, president of Grab N’ Grow Soil Products, the only current commercial distributor of compost in the county and a subsidiary of Soiland Co.mpany, which manufactures and sells aggregate rock, soil and compost products, also expressed interest in developing a proposal to expand operations.

“We believe the future is very bright … compost is always going to be needed,” Soiland said. “Sonoma County is exporting a tremendous amount of its green waste due to the closure of Sonoma Compost, so we see a very obvious need for local companies to step in.”

Soiland and other Grab N’ Grow officials said the company is working on potential proposals to expand by developing new products and accepting more than just yard waste, such as food scraps.

The company has experienced double-digit growth continually since the closure of Sonoma Compost last October.

“We haven’t been able to keep up with demand,” said Kjell Kallman, director of sales and marketing for the company. “We’ve seen more green waste coming in and record sales on our compost products. It’s good and bad … on one hand, business is up, but on the other, we haven’t been able to keep up with the supply for a significant portion of our loyal bunch of customers.”

Kallman and other company officials said they welcome multiple operations in the county, using perhaps different technologies to convert organic material into compost or fertilizers.

“When you have a really large centralized site, it’s more complicated and expensive, and that could lead to it being more ineffecient,” Kallman said. “Smaller, more independent operations can be more nimble and technology-driven. Look at how the closure of Sonoma Compost crippled the county.”

You can reach Staff Writer Angela Hart at 707-526-8503 or angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ahartreports.