Butte County approves $1.5M contract for waste hauling

OROVILLE — The Butte County Board of Supervisors approved a $1.5 million contract on Tuesday with Scarberry Trucking, LLC for the purpose of transporting liquids from the Neal Road Recycling and Waste Facility in an effort to comply with state requirements.

In August, the Butte County Public Works Department solicited bids for the landfill’s liquid hauling needs and Gridley company Scarberry Trucking came in at the lowest of the six bids submitted.

The terms of the three-year contract require Scarberry to transport leachate to a Publicly-Owned Owned Treatment Works facility. Depending on the travel distance, the county will put forth between $.075 to $.19 depending on travel distance. Leachate refers to the liquids separated from solid waste during processing.

“Most of that will be done locally and will be done at the seven-and-a-half cent mark and the rest of it will be capacity if we have some unusual events,” said Butte County Public Works Director Joshua Pack.

Pack went on to speak on the amount of this type of waste transported in the past.

“To give you a perspective on the volume, traditionally we transport an average of roughly 10,000-14,000 gallons of leachate off-site in recent years,” Pack said.

Supervisor Bill Connelly asked Packed if the county recovers the costs through dumping fees to which Pack said no.

“There is a partial cost recovery, but there is some that is not recovered,” Pack said, adding that it would require a fee increase. The last fee increase occurred in 2016 for dumping.

The board unanimously approved the contract.

Other business

Beyond approving the hauling contract, the board oversaw the following items:

• A cost-share agreement for the Vina and Wyandotte Creek Groundwater Sustainability Agencies for various employment for services and management. It was stated at the meeting that the two GSAs will share a 70/30% cost share with Vina spending the majority.

• The board approved its five-year infrastructure master plan to go out to bid with a total investment of $114 million.

• In its consent agenda, the board approved a resolution accepting funding from the Flood Maintenance Assistance Program for the Operation, Maintenance, Repair, Rehabilitation and Replacement agreement.