Dump Fees Increase Across Riverside County

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — The Board of Supervisors approved increasing fees by almost 9 percent across-the-board for dumping rights at Riverside County landfills Tuesday, as well as hiking a range of charges for trash disposal connected to individual items, including tires and televisions.

Department of Waste Resources Director Hans Kernkamp sought the fee adjustments as part of the agency's annual cost modification plan in response to new state regulations, capital improvements, staff expenses and inflation.

The latter has been at the forefront of several board hearings, and will likely factor into the upcoming 2022-23 budget hearings for more than three dozen county agencies.

Supervisor Kevin Jeffries felt that the department's request for fee changes could have waited until the mid-June hearings, saying it was a "disservice to skip ahead on every other department that has to go through the budget process" just to accommodate Kernkamp's department.

"The process is being circumvented," the supervisor said. "You're bypassing that process, which this board should be exercising, so we can account for what your needs are. Everybody else gets in line except for you."

The other board members didn't see the point in deferring for three or four weeks what they intended to authorize anyway, though Supervisor Karen Spiegel initially concurred with Jeffries before ultimately joining the majority in a 4-1 vote.

To match the cost-of-living spike recorded by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for the Inland Empire from January 2021 to January 2022, the board approved an 8.6 percent increase in all base fees charged by the Department of Waste Resources. For example, the residential self-haul card for access to the Oasis landfill will go from the current monthly rate of $16.29 to $17.69.

Along with Oasis, the county operates four other public landfills — Badlands, Blythe, Desert Center and Lamb Canyon.

The new direct-haul, non-contracted rate for dumping at all of them will be $46.35 per ton of refuse, compared to $42.68 per ton currently. That compares to an average $64.75 at public landfills in Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego counties, according to Kernkamp.
Riverside County's new rates will take effect on July 1.

Kernkamp said that even though rates are rising, the department tried to offset the higher expenses by doing away with the tiered system for dumping by individuals in preference to a flat-rate system.

Under the revised process, sedans, vans, SUVs and pickups — even hauling an 8-foot by 4-foot flatbed trailer — will all be charged the same entry fee of $14. So-called "hard-to-handle" and "mixed waste" loads will net higher charges. Although current entry fees are lower for some vehicles, one direct benefit of going to a flat-rate structure is the ability for landfill staff to forgo outgoing weight checks on vehicles, which has been creating long queues in some locations, according to officials.

"The non-weigh-back is really good," board Chairman Jeff Hewitt said.

The fees for tire disposal will be doubling, from $2 to $4, which Jeffries found troubling.

"I fear the worst with the tire fees because more tires will not be making it to landfills," the supervisor said. "During a community cleanup in Mead Valley, 900 tires turned up (on roadsides and elsewhere)."

Kernkamp replied that some illegal dumping is inevitable, and pointed out that even with the increase, it's still at the low end because "we're not charging the fully burdened rate for what it takes to handle those tires."

As with tires, the fees for dumping flat-screen and projection-screen televisions will be jumping, from 23 to 25 cents per pound currently to a uniform rate of 29 cents per pound on July 1.

Apart from inflation, the county is also contending with state mandates that are driving costs up. On Jan. 1, Senate Bill 1383 took effect, requiring that organic waste — mostly discarded food — be reduced or diverted to conserve space and reduce methane pollution.

The state target is a 75 percent reduction from 2014 levels of organic waste in landfills by 2025.

The latest fee hikes follow similar inflation-motivated increases for waste disposal approved by the board — with Jeffries casting the sole dissenting vote — on May 10. The board authorized across-the-board hikes of about 8 percent sought by the four waste haulers under contract with the county — Burrtec Waste, CR&R Inc., Desert Valley Disposal and Waste Management Inc.

The fees, which also take effect on July 1, are for services in the county's unincorporated communities, not the cities.