Dive Transient:
- DTG Recycle, a Washington-based C&D recycler, has reopened its sole landfill following working and air allow approvals. The newly named Rocky High Environmental opened Dec. 12 after an 18-month renovation that included lining a cell.
- The positioning’s working allow was beforehand denied by the Yakima Well being District, forcing a shutdown in 2023. The Yakima Regional Clear Air Company, or YRCAA, permitted the positioning’s air allow in March 2024. It’s now being challenged by an area environmental group.
- DTG can be pushing again on a proposed penalty of practically $3.4 million by the state’s Utilities and Transportation Fee for allegedly transporting waste for disposal with out the correct certificates. DTG filed a movement to dismiss that case final week.
Dive Perception:
DTG was lengthy recognized within the Pacific Northwest for fast progress by acquisitions, together with the 2019 buy of the previous Anderson Landfill in Yakima. It attracted funding from Macquarie in 2022, however then it noticed a few of that progress stall.
The corporate’s final recognized acquisition was about two years in the past. Since then, a number of prime executives have departed, together with its longtime CEO and later its founder. Macquarie despatched in executives that had been concerned in different portfolio firms to assist throughout this era, and DTG introduced a brand new CEO final spring.
The Yakima County website, regulated as a restricted goal landfill, is seen as a key asset to permit vertical integration. Nevertheless it had been working and not using a liner since opening in 1997 and began dealing with a variety of questions from state and native regulators concerning the presence of risky natural compounds in its emissions. A subsurface hearth was additionally detected on the website in 2023 and stays ongoing, in line with the most recent month-to-month advisor report.
Following discussions and investments, regulators allowed the positioning to reopen with a permitted capability of 1 million cubic yards per 12 months. DTG stated it has additionally added extra capability to divert recyclable materials earlier than disposal.
“We selected the identify Rocky High Environmental for the positioning to higher honor the area it serves, and to precisely mirror its scope of actions,” stated CEO Jordan Reber in a press release. “We undertook the numerous capital mission of lining the landfill portion of the positioning and have invested in upgrading and modernizing all points of our operations.”
This hasn’t satisfied sure space residents, together with the group Pals of Rocky High that’s difficult the air allow on the idea {that a} new State Environmental Coverage Act overview ought to have been carried out. YRCAA and DTG are aligned in opposition to this problem.
Residents are additionally following new outcomes from groundwater monitoring on the website, which detected ranges of sure chemical compounds, together with PFAS.
In the meantime, in Snohomish County, DTG is dealing with one other problem because of a dispute over its hauling certificates.
Washington requires a stable waste certificates to haul waste, however DTG lengthy operated with out one as a C&D recycler. The state’s UTC stated it communicated with DTG about this for years and requested that it apply for a certificates, however the firm didn’t accomplish that till July 2024.
In accordance with the grievance, DTG “was transporting and disposing of stable waste” and in addition working adverts “providing particles disposal providers for residential and business recycling prospects.”
DTG collected and managed 186,898 tons of waste for processing at its MRF in Snohomish County from January by June of 2023. An estimated 73,270 tons had been despatched for disposal as residuals. This equated to three,389 truckloads, with a proposed penalty of $1,000 every.
The corporate disputed this narrative in a latest submitting, which included a movement to dismiss. It stated a third-party contractor was the one who hauled the fabric to a county-approved intermodal rail facility for transport to a Republic Providers landfill. DTG described this as widespread apply, with assist from WM as an intervenor, and it stated a certificates just isn’t required as a result of it wasn’t cashing in on the residuals.
DTG stated within the submitting that it “doesn’t search to broaden its operations to incorporate the gathering and transport of stable waste.” The corporate touted diverting over 100,000 tons of fabric from disposal final 12 months and described that exercise as beneath menace from regulators.
“If the UTC’s cease-and-desist order is allowed to face, all of that progress will cease, as will the overwhelming majority of Washington’s capability to recycle business and C&D supplies,” stated Reber in a press release.
The UTC’s response to this movement is due within the coming weeks, with the potential for an consequence as early as February.
Correction: This story has been up to date to right the proposed UTC penalty. It’s $3,389,000.