COUNTY FIRE RESPONDS TO ALISAL FIRE AT THE TAJIGUAS LANDFILL
Source: County of Santa Barbara
Around 10:45 a.m. this morning, Santa Barbara County Fire responded to a fire at the Tajiguas Landfill. As areas of the landfill smoldered and burned from the Alisal Fire, a flare-up occurred in the biofilter outside the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). The biofilter is an uncovered concrete structure filled with woodchips that receives and filters air from inside the MRF. County Fire is managing the ignited woodchips and is protecting the MRF from the flames. County and incident staff are currently assessing the damage to the biofilter and the facility.
Staff is also assessing damage to the landfill. In addition to the biofilter, the Alisal Fire damaged drainage, landfill gas collection systems, and heavy equipment. The new MRF and Anaerobic Digester are currently intact. The waste management structures are equipped with indoor and exterior fire suppression equipment, fire hydrants, and two water tanks that hold up to 300,000 gallons.
The County has implemented a contingency plan, and facilities in Ventura County will manage waste collected in the area on a short-term emergency basis. Waste collection services from residents and businesses will continue as usual, and the South Coast Recycling and Transfer Station remains open to serve the public. Santa Barbara County Public Works would like to thank the County fire crews that entered the landfill on Monday at 4 p.m. and defended the facility through the night.
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Oct 13, 2021 09:54 AMTajiguas is not just a dump. As BOSCO explained, it is a sophisticated material recovery facility. I recently was part of a tour there and I plan to write it up. It is vitally important to recover as much waste as possible for productive uses. This is essential for reducing precious land needed for storing waste.
Equally important is their innovative program to prevent methane emissions as a Climate Crisis issue. As BOSCO explained, there has been a lot of investment in this and we really need to protect that investment.
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Oct 13, 2021 04:19 PMPit recycling isn't about demand for reused plastics and glass. Weird saying that in our capitolistic society...but it's more about the environment and thining the trash into different sectors, some of the sectors are reused and some can't be. There is always a big demand for plastics as awful as it is. The industry I work in (is boring) has started putting plastics (recycled fishing plastics) into some furniture products and also in common household items. Plastics are also melted down and recycled into other items that we (most of us) use and not realize there are plastics in them...check out your (cheap brands) shampoo, soaps, tooth paste (major brands use micro plastics...my sis is a hygentist and scrapes out plastic beads from peoples gum lines frequently). I get what you're saying though, who would want to use plastics these days? Definitely not me.
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Oct 13, 2021 10:41 AMSBR, I often see people putting trash in their recycling bin. I figured that Marborg doesn't care as it is getting sorted at the MRF anyway. Recycling is pretty much a joke anyway given the lack of demand for plastic, but if they can divert food waste before it goes into the landfill then they can limit the methane problem to the stuff already in the landfill. According to this article, it won't stay open past 2036 no matter what....
https://www.independent.com/2018/06/21/tajiguas-landfill-gets-expedited-expiration-date/
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Oct 13, 2021 09:12 AMThat MRF just went online a few months ago. A lot of money and time went in to get that facility built. It's critical to the future of the landfill and the County's recycling capability. If that's lost, it's a big deal.
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Oct 13, 2021 08:45 AMSo is there any relationship to this fire and the Alisal fire nearby?
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Oct 13, 2021 08:16 AMI wondered what would happen to the trash collected by Marborg if Tajiguas is closed.
I bet those wood chips will keep burning for a while- it's really hard to put out fires like that.