At the April 20 SLO County Board of Supervisors meeting, 1st District Supervisor John Peschong, 5th District Supervisor Debbie Arnold, and 4th District Supervisor Lynn Compton voted to agendize a hearing at which the county could decide to pull out of the Integrated Waste Management Authority.
No one is unclear on the reason why. The IWMA ban on polystyrene passed two years ago to “help maximize the operating life of landfills and help protect the natural environment from contamination and degradation” (emphasis added) but was left in limbo. It was finally implemented on April 16 despite the gun-to-the-head threat from our conservative ruling block of supervisors to leave the IWMA if it was—a threat that scared some (but not quite enough) of their colleagues on the IWMA board to vote against a ban they had previously voted for. As CalCoastNews put it in the run-up to the polystyrene vote: “Peschong and Arnold noted plans to pull the county out of the IWMA if they continued to force ordinances on communities they were not elected to represent. Paso Robles Councilman John Hamon agreed, saying Paso Robles would likely exit the IWMA with the county.”
This was one in a string of bogus rationales for opposition to implementing the ban. Let us count the ways:
• Sacramento could achieve the goals of the ban with a statewide bill, rendering a local ban unnecessary. (No such bill has been passed by the state Legislature, and every such bill legislators have attempted to pass in recent years has been killed.)
• The IWMA must only enforce mandates from the state. (It is the policy goal of the state that no less than 75 percent of solid waste generated be source-reduced, recycled, or composted. The mandate provided by the Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 is cited in the first paragraph of the ordinance, and in the IWMA’s 2012 ordinance prohibiting single-use plastic bags, which noted that the IWMA is “empowered … to achieve the mandates imposed by the Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 on a regional basis,” enabling it “to enact a waste reduction and reuse program that will decrease the use of single-use carryout bags.” Ditto your Styrofoam take-out clamshell. And aside from the pretense that there was no state mandate for the polystyrene ordinance, the stern insistence that the IWMA must only enforce state mandates is coming from elected officials who have spent their political lives proclaiming their horror at the idea of state authority. This is the kind of hypocrisy that never breaks down in the environment.)
• We can’t afford it. (At the meeting where the polystyrene ban was finally implemented, staff presented a budget to go along with it.)
And so on. But the argument that the county should leave the IWMA because it “force(s) ordinances on communities they were not elected to represent” is a special brand of bogus.
First, it’s hard to know exactly what that means. Is this a local eruption of the longstanding conservative dream of abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, Department of Education, etc., in fealty to the philosophy that government agencies are undemocratic? Are the conservative supervisors unaware that every regulatory body in the nation that is overseen by boards of elected officials makes decisions and passes ordinances that apply beyond the political jurisdiction of any single board member? Are they unaware that on any given Tuesday, they themselves vote on measures that may primarily or only effect the residents of a supervisorial district not their own?
An elected official who does not understand this—or pretends not to when it suits his or her purposes—probably has no business being an elected official.
The hearing on pulling the county out of the IWMA may be held as early as the supervisors’ May 4 meeting (the county didn’t post an agenda before press time). County staff will hopefully take the time to acquaint the board majority—and indirectly, the city of Paso Robles—with the phrase “economies of scale” and point out the reasons why it might be a good thing that, for the last 27 years, there has been a single agency that manages all hazardous waste, universal waste, solid waste, green/food waste, and recycling for San Luis Obispo County.
If they do so but the board majority chooses not to hear them, it will be because the ideological call of the wild overpowered any residual fondness for responsible governance, and the grand exit must be made no matter how much more money it costs all residents to take on the duties of the IWMA via multiple smaller, semi-redundant agencies that must make some attempt at coordination across a tangle of multiple local jurisdictions.
That grand exit on a 3-2 vote won’t be as memorable as it would be if Supervisors Peschong, Compton, and Arnold lay on the floor, screaming, kicking their heels and holding their breath until their faces turned blue. But it will come to the same thing. Δ
Andrew Christie is the Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club’s director. Send comments for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Apr 29 – May 9, 2021.
I have an economy of scale for you. Contract it all out to Waste Management or a similar company that has expertise and remove the politics.
Once again the board majority, Compton, Arnold and Peschong, pushes a plan that will financially benefit a few at the expense and inconvenience of just about everyone else in the county. In addition, they are compromising the environment and the health of constituents, going against the tide of community public interest . This stinks and every single one of these supervisors constituents should be outraged, except for that small handful that will get rich from this bald-faced scheme. These wayward politicians look to have been emboldened by Donald Trump and the way he got away with so many horrible acts while in office. With newspapers struggling, theres little need for these sharpies to show accountability and they are making the most of this opportunity to bulldoze over the best interests of the people of the central coast. It is selfish and sick. And be sure to remember that when you vote.
I SUPPORT Supervisors Peschong, Compton and Arnold!
Enough of the whacky liberal ideological nonsense, leaving the IWMA is a no-brainer now that the agency has adopted senseless environmental policies, and taxpayers do not need a few politicians leading us to reduced services and higher taxes in order to promote a non-sensical, liberal environmental agenda.
Stop the foolhardy religion of environmental worship.
Protecting the health of our children and our environment is not “nonsensical“. Neither is having an efficient, cost-effective, coordinated comprehensive approach to waste management.
https://www.worldcentric.com/journal/impac…
There is good reason that poly styrene and Styrofoam ate being banned throughout the world. Those who believe in science and care about the health of themselves and family members would do well to read these facts about the toxic nature of poly styrene and Styrofoam.
https://www.worldcentric.com/journal/impac…
We should not let Industrial lobbyists and self-serving politicians harm our community for the sake of enriching a few people to the detriment of everyone else. Once again Compton, Arnold and Peschong are actively destroying the well-being of our community for their own selfish interests. I bet you never see any of them drinking their coffee from Styrofoam cups. They know the truth but dont want you to know it.
Do the research, ask the scientists, ask doctors. Look at the statistics regarding cancer and thyroid problems. And learn what Styrofoam does to wildlife.
Having sound environmental policies based on science and long term public benefit is not “senseless”.
Reject environmental extremism!
The whacky left lies when it paints humans as enemies of the environment, God gave man dominion over all things, and we have been good environmental stewards!
If the whacky left really cared about the environment, they would donate their cars and live in caves, but, instead, people like Al Gore are the single biggest energy users in their entire state, why the hypocrisy?
For Steve Edwards: Republican base voters—the kinds of people who vote in primaries and shape the party—are increasingly turning to “news” outlets that provide a toxic brew of outrage-centric infotainment, conspiracy theories, and misinformation. This helps create the conditions in which the majority of the Republican Party thinks an election was stolen from them. This misinformation is bad for people, and bad for democracy.”
And exhibit A in this trend can be found in comments of Mr. Edwards, a white nationalist Trumper.
Putin-inspired propagandists like the person who calls himself Steve Edwards, are actively trying to spread misinformation and animosity in our community in order to create chaos.
There is nothing wacky about striving for peace, health and prosperity in our community. Positive thoughts create positive outcomes.
Jesus taught us to love our neighbors. Lets live in love and reject satanic attitudes like those being promoted by a person who calls himself Steve Edwards. May God give him the grace to understand the horrible error of his ways.