In the space under the house, I had the load all ready to go–trash bags stuffed with debris I’ve removed from the beach over the past year, a sizable stack of cheap inner tubes and other floaties, some of which needed a stroke from the machete to fully deflate, a couple of old TVs, and a bat of insulation left by the previous owner that got soaked in last winter’s flood.
With a little shoving, it all fit in the back of the pickup, and I rolled out toward Guerneville’s transfer station.
Which is in an odd location–it’s out on the windiest, narrowest section of the Pocket Canyon Highway (SR 116) between Guerneville and Forestville. Then, a turn at a sign that says (simply and somewhat inaccurately) “Refuse Disposal Area.” Then up a steep, windy 1-lane path, much like the ones I’m used to navigating by bicycle. Then around the edge of a forested subdivision, and into a clearing.
Having arrived, I had a fine experience–friendly staff, free recycling for the TVs, only $15 to dump the trash, and then I was quickly on my way back down the steep path, except that I had to back up quite a ways and fit into somebody’s driveway to let an incoming garbage truck pass.
However. What an odd, un-economic, and un-ecological location for a transfer station. I didn’t get to see one of the big semitrailers head fully loaded down the path, and I’m not sure I’d want to.
There are a lot of undeveloped flat sites along, or close to, the main road through the Guerneville area. Some of those sites are unrecovered from the area’s legacy of foresting. Some are even publicly owned.
Certainly, over the years, the powers that be must have considered relocating the transfer station to one or more of these safer, more accessible sites. They must have taken into account the reduction in vehicle emissions from haulers and residents. The increased safety. The opportunity to move the facility away from a residential area and to restore the current site, which I’m guessing is an old landfill.
And I’m guessing they also took into account NIMBY opposition to any new site, and the potential for lawsuits and delays, and the limits on their powers of eminent domain.
The crippling of government power–which is synonymous with the undermining of democracy–has left our society unable to make sensible decisions that can improve quality of life and enhance environmental value.
That aside, I’m really going to enjoy future trips to the transfer station. It’s beautiful up there.
