Trinity County is located in the remote mountains of Northern California, bordered to the east by the northern Sacramento Valley, and to the west by California's Redwood Coast. Of the 3,258 square miles that comprise Trinity County, 80% is owned by government agencies.

Visitors coming from the San Francisco Bay area have two options: Drive north on Interstate 5 to Redding, then turn west on California State Route 299, the Trinity National Scenic Byway. Weaverville, the County seat, is approximately 45 miles west of Redding, or about a one-hour drive. Highway 299 West, from Redding to Arcata, has been designated as the Trinity National Scenic Byway.

The other option is to take Highway 101 North to Arcata in Humboldt County, then turn east on Highway 299. The Trinity County line near Salyer is a 46-mile drive, and lies just beyond Willow Creek.

Travelers coming from Oregon and other points north on Interstate 5 can take Highway 3 at Yreka, entering the northern end of the county over Scott Summit. This route offers wonderful views of the Trinity Alps Wilderness as well as quick access to the resort areas of Coffee Creek and Trinity Lake. Highway 3 has been designated the "Trinity Heritage National Scenic Byway.

Visitors to the Mad River and Ruth areas in southern Trinity County will take Highway 36, either from Red Bluff along Interstate 5, or at Alton, just south of Fortuna on Highway 101. Highway 36 has some narrow, windy stretches with steep grades, although the views from the top of South Fork Mountain are spectacular. www.trinitycounty.com.

                                  
Basic Overview of System

Trinity County Solid Waste is comprised of 9 transfer stations throughout the County with outlying station waste being transported to the main station in Weaverville. The transfer stations have 3—6 in ground bins with ‘bear proof’ lids made of recycled metal wastes. From there we ship our wastes to the Anderson Landfill in Shasta County. The Weaverville and Hayfork stations, being the least remote, boast electricity and phones as modern conveniences, but the other 7 are remote and at this time lack power or phones. However, we have installed solar power at 4 of the stations and at new budget we will be installing cash registers at those stations. Cell phones are not practical in the more mountainous reaches of the County. All stations, except Weaverville, lack potable water. Most stations have propane heating.

We own our own waste collection vehicles—2 Volvo garbage trucks and 2 pal body trucks. This fall we will be adding a roll-off truck and 20-40 yd dumpsters to the fleet. We’ve been servicing approximately 300 commercial businesses and 300 residential customers in addition to transferring all wastes from outlying stations and providing service for major disasters, usually fires, since summer 1999. We average 5,600 tons of MSW per year.

Kudos went to our guys last summer; they passed the BIT program on a first try!

The only other waste collection company operating on franchise in our County is Tom’s Trash, who if you can believe it has about 1/3 the customers we do. We also handle our own billing, routing and vehicle maintenance.

As you can see, our position in Northern California leaves us pretty well sandwiched in by larger commercial haulers. Until 1999 we subscribed to their services through a franchise contract originating in the early 90’s. When it was time to renew the contract, they wanted $1,000,000.00. Now, we only have 13,022 people, including kids, in our county. An average of 4.1 persons per square mile.

John Whitaker, our Director, decided we could do it ourselves; build our station, transport waste and deliver improved services to our customers, while creating new job opportunities for the working population of Trinity. AND...he did.

Financial

Currently we operate as an enterprise system with a budget of roughly $2,000,000.00. There is a 2 tier fee collection system in place:

  We collect an Annual Parcel Fee of $100.00 per unit. We print approximately 7,000 bills. Commercial businesses      are charged according to rates set in place by our Board of Supervisors.

  The second tier is the tip fees collected at the gate and/or from waste collection routes. The Director of the General      Services/Solid Waste Department has the authority to set the tip fees.

(See information letter)

  Year round recycling opportunities at our facilities in Weaverville and      Hayfork, with seasonal recycling at remaining transfer stations.
  Fledgling ‘Sharps Consolidation Center’ in Weaverville to be expanded      this summer to most other sites.
  In conjunction with our Annual Parcel Fee Collection, we offer ‘Recycling      Credits’.
  We offer oil collection at 6 of our transfer stations, the one in Weaverville      being certified. With the help of the ESJPA we will soon be offering waste oil cleanup sites, one in Ruth Lake and two on Trinity Lake.
  Annual Hazardous Waste Collection Days.
  Metal waste recycling areas in Weaverville, Hayfork, Ruth and Burnt Ranch.
  'Junk Vehicle Roundups’ held in local communities in conjunction with the Vehicle Abatement Program of Trinity      County.
  Promote waste reduction, reuse & recycling programs at County Events, Trinity County Fair and Shangri-La Days.
  ‘Tire Roundups’.
  Brush Consolidation areas at most sites.

Currently Staff is working on a Compost Feasibility Study and Community Fuels Reduction Program.

Diversion is accomplished mainly through the afore-mentioned programs. To be sure, we also have our hands in school education, public outreach and local cable television.

Our largest diversion factors lie in the introduction of ‘Tip Fees’ and our ‘Recycle Credit Program’, with the ‘Vehicle Roundups’ pulling up right behind them. We managed to meet and exceed the mandates set in AB939 with a 61% diversion rate.

As with most smaller counties, we tend to have the same concerns regarding trickle fills, diversion numbers and excessive regulatory intervention. We have a beautiful county with a very low population base, approximately 5,500 residences. Our largest town has 3,000 people and in some of the smaller towns we may serve only a few. It is very hard to put one program in place, assuming it will be beneficial to the diverse needs of the whole county.

Our landfill is capped and will only be used in an emergency situation such as becoming landlocked by a natural disaster. We were operating an inert cell, but there seems to be some issues with that so we are now only operating it during the summer months.

It does not take much to skew our diversion rates, one fire or a large construction project. As mentioned earlier, we did meet our AB939 mandate, however the previous year we had a diversion of 67%. The difference of 6% is attributed to the fire season and the Big Bar Complex. A difference of 154 tons will change our diversion rate by 1%!

This is where partnership with the ESJPA has been most helpful. Their Staff knows the needs of the rurals and has given us a voice. Something most of us, as individual counties, would not have the time or funding to accomplish. They also strive to streamline grant processes for us making a lot of programs feasible for us to initiate with limited staff on hand. Multiply that factor alone by 21 counties and that is quite a time savings for all of us!