For the last 10 years, Paola Berthoin, a resident of Carmel Valley, has personally managed her own household waste. Since the 60-year-old recycles or composts nearly everything, she long ago waived the option for county trash service. She prefers to take what little waste she does have to the Carmel Valley dumping station every few months instead of paying for trash service.
In late April, Berthoin received a letter in the mail from the county’s Environmental Health Department informing her that, after 10 years, her exemption was set to expire on June 30. She could do nothing and begin paying for trash service, or she could begin applying for a one-year exemption and pay the annual and non-refundable $171 application fee.
“Normally I would recycle paper, but I was so disgusted that I decided this letter really belongs in the trash,” Berthoin says.
In Prunedale, Steve Tansey’s 89-year-old mother received the same notice after operating with a similar exemption since the 1970s. Her narrow driveway is nearly a mile long. Before the letter, Tansey says, she was never asked to sign or pay anything for the exemption.
Ric Encarnacion took over as interim bureau chief of the Environmental Health Department in December. He says the application process and fee was his decision and did not require approval from the Board of Supervisors. It’s part of the county gearing up for the impact of Senate Bill 1383, signed into law in 2016, which requires jurisdictions to be more vigilant about landfill diversion.
Composting services will become mandatory in 2022 and Encarnacion says it’s going to require everyone paying for trash service unless they meet three specific criteria: the property is vacant; all waste is recycled or composted; or the property has a long and narrow driveway that garbage trucks cannot safely navigate.
Berthoin and Tansey were among more than 2,000 Monterey County residents who were asked to apply and pay for their exemptions. After a wave of pushback that pulled County Supervisor John Phillips into the fight, the Environmental Health Department caved and waived the new application and fee. Phillips says the department got “a little out in front of themselves.”
Encarnacion admits the department made a mistake by not first seeking public input. He says the fee and application process won’t be returning any time soon.