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Jefferson County Public Health
Performance Measures 2011 Year-End Report
SOLID AND HAZARDOUS WASTE PROGRAM
MISSION: The mission of the Solid Waste Code Compliance and Education Program is to enforce
Washington State and Jefferson County solid and hazardous waste code, educate the community about ways
to reduce solid and hazardous waste, and to promote the goals and objectives for solid waste reduction and
recycling outlined in the Jefferson County Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan.
GOALS FOR FY 2011
1. Investigate all solid and hazardous waste complaints.
2. Resolve solid and hazardous waste violations through voluntary compliance or citations and legal
action when necessary.
3. Reduce the incidence of illegal dumping.
4. Assure all permitted facilities (past & present) meet current regulation standards.
5. Increase awareness of small quantity generator and household hazardous waste (HHW) disposal
requirements and options through education and outreach efforts.
6. Promote re-use, recycling, and a reduction in consumption (pre-cycling) to decrease annual tonnage
of solid waste.
7. Reduce the incidence and risk of environmental contamination in Puget Sound by promoting use of
Best Management Practices (BMPs) by businesses and residents along the water, and increase
community awareness of non-point source water pollution.
OBJECTIVES FOR FY 2011
1. Coordinate with other agencies to resolve more difficult solid waste violations.
2. Work with the County’s Prosecuting Attorney to pursue legal remedy for the most difficult
enforcement cases.
3. Continue to utilize motion-activated cameras at illegal dump sites to identify offenders and work with
citizens to identify and clean-up sites quickly.
4. Educate consumers at point of purchase about proper disposal of HHW and non-toxic alternatives.
5. Work with Public Works to promote HHW collection days and educate participants about non-toxic
alternatives.
6. Promote reduction of consumption (pre-cycling) and re-use, that recycling is not enough.
7. Actively work with marinas, ports, and businesses within them to ensure use of best management
practices and prevent toxic and hazardous wastes from entering the water.
8. Promote businesses that are using BMP’s to protect natural resources and reduce waste.
9. Maintain webpage to ensure accurate and current information available to public.
10. Coordinate with other government agencies with regard to education and outreach on solid waste,
hazardous waste and stormwater issues.
PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
2009 2010 2011
Projected
2011
Final
SOLID WASTE
Total number of solid waste complaints received 60 65 60 68
Total number of solid waste violations resolved 90 68 70 81
# of illegal dumps complaints received 14 11 12 14
# of illegal dumps complaints resolved 19 10 12 12
# of citations/tickets issued 24 5 <5 8
# of court hearings attended 19 2 <5 7
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Tons/cubic yards of solid waste removed/recycled
through compliance efforts (not including junk
vehicles)
55+tons Approx. 50 Approx 25
Total number of solid waste violations awaiting legal
action/abatement
1 2 1 2
# of warrants of abatement obtained/completed 0 0 1 1
# of Jeff. Co. permitted facilities meeting current
regulation standards (out of 8) (1)
8 of 9 8 of 8 8 8
Total number of active EnviroStars businesses (Out
of100 eligible in Jefferson County)
14 18 21 21
# of new EnviroStar businesses 3 5 3 5
# of active Green Businesses 21 26 31 24
# of new Green Businesses 6 6 5 7
# of Junk Cars removed/recycled 139 141 150 35
# of “Amnesty Day” events 0 1 0 0
Tons/yards of solid waste recycled/disposed of during
“Amnesty Day”.
0 3000 Tires
South
County(2)
0 NA
HAZARDOUS WASTE
ERTS received/investigated
See Note (3)
9
Initial Investigations completed 5
Sites awaiting SHA (at end 2011) 8
Site Hazard Assessments completed 4
Local Source Control Visits 9 29 18 19
Spill Kits Distributed 0 0 0 25
(1) At the end of 2008, JCPH broke out several facilities that had previously been lumped together. (Jefferson County Transfer Station,
Recycling Center, and closed Municipal Landfill.) This will enable clarification for the purposes of monitoring and permitting. In 2010,
Ecology took over the permitting of the Olympic Corrections Bio-solids composting facility, reducing the number of sites to eight.
(2) JCPH worked with Washington Department of Ecology to remove and properly dispose of 904 tons of tires from five large sites, at no
cost to Jefferson County. Initial numbers from 2007 were 300 tons. Final numbers for the project by the end of 2008 were 904 tons. JCPH
then sponsored a one-day tire-recycling event for county residents that collected an additional 2500 tires.
(3) Until now, Site Hazard Assessments (SHA) and Initial Investigations (II) have not been included in the solid waste team’s annual
projections.
STUDY/ANALYSIS
Solid Waste Enforcement
Solid Waste Complaints
JCPH’s projections for solid waste complaints were accurate. Overall, case load remains low, but a higher
percentage of staff time is spent on difficult and hard to resolve cases which involve multiple citations, court
hearings, and warrants of abatement. The number of illegal dumps has decreased since 2005. Illegal dumps
appear to be at a steady rate of 12-14 complaints a year. This is surprising given the economic downturn and
increased illegal dumping in other counties. The number of junk vehicles also took a dramatic decrease. We
attribute the decrease to the Jefferson County Sherriff’s Department volunteers who are responding to more
requests for junk vehicle removals than in the past.
Solid Waste Permitting
JCPH staff spent a significant amount or resources on permitted facilities this year with a potential change in
the designation of the Port Townsend Paper’s Inert Waste Landfill to a Limited Purpose Landfill. This
resulted in more than usual staff time spent in meetings and responding to public records requests.
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The Solid Waste Team experienced staff changes at the end of the year with Lori Clark vacating the position
for career opportunities in Island County, and Pinky Feria Mingo joining the team. The addition of Pinky
increased the teams’ capacity to conduct solid waste inspections, permit inspections, and Local Source
Control Inspections.
Small Business Technical Assistance
On-site Technical Assistance
JCPH implements three small business technical assistance programs—Local Source Control, Green
Business, and EnviroStars. These programs focus on reducing hazardous and solid waste, promoting non-
toxic alternatives, and implementing best management practices at businesses that generate or store
hazardous materials and hazardous waste. The goal of these programs is to reduce toxics at their source and
assist businesses with understanding environmental regulations and managing hazardous materials to prevent
contamination. In 2012, JCPH exceeded our projected goals by certifying seven new EnviroStars and eight
new Green Businesses, and increasing and expanding the Local Source Control program to a full FTE. The
overall number of certified businesses dropped due to several businesses going out of businesses during the
economic downturn.
Education and Outreach
The Solid Waste Education and Outreach team aggressively promoted non-toxic alternatives at community
events like Hadlock Days, Earth Day, and at four Household Hazardous Waste Collection Events. The team
also developed and distributed several publications on best management practices and advertisements for our
EnviroStars Members. These include a Best Management Practices handout, Junk Mail Flyer for reducing
junk mail, an EnviroStars and Green Business promotional handout, and several newspaper advertisements
for our EnviroStars members.
Site Hazard Assessment (SHA) and Initial Investigation (II)
The team exceeded grant contracted deliverables for 2010-2011. SHAs and IIs will be part of the 2012 solid
waste team projections. There are several sites awaiting SHAs on Ecology’s Confirmed and Suspected list.
JCPH staff has been prioritizing SHAs that are closest to and pose the most risk to surface water and
balancing this with the need to rank historic cases that Ecology transferred to JCPH. At least two sites
completed in 2011 required and will likely continue to require significant staff time: The Port Townsend Gun
Club and Port Ludlow Well #2.
Summary of Key Findings/Service Issues
The reduction in funding and staffing of all county departments means we must evaluate priorities and
division of labor. Increased inter-departmental cooperation will enable us to accomplish the most with
limited funds. Citizens need to be informed about the necessary reduction in and speed of services (i.e. junk
vehicle affidavits are not as high a priority as a hazardous waste complaint). Our departments can also stretch
the funding by utilizing volunteer/citizen groups where possible.
Updated: March 1st, 2012