Former Napa Valley Landfill Workers Allege Unsafe Workplace and Environmental Conditions

[ad_1]

Three former employees of the waste management company serving northern Napa Valley have filed complaints about worker safety and environmental concerns with the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health and other agencies over the past few months.

For years, past incidents of fire and water contamination at waste sites managed by Upper Valley Disposal & Recycling Service have caused some advocates to worry about the risks to surrounding fertile farmland and nearby communities. in the area prone to forest fires.

This includes former Saint Helena Mayor Geoff Ellsworth, who has also filed local and state level complaints and repeatedly raised concerns at town hall meetings. A consumer complaint filed with the Napa County prosecutors office last year is still pending.

The Upper Valley Disposal and Recycling Service and Clover Flat landfills in the hills near St. Helena and Calistoga have been owned and operated for decades by the local Pestoni family.

But in October, they went ahead with a sale to Waste Connections, Inc., one of the nation’s largest waste management companies. Still, company representatives at the time said most of the existing local management team would remain in place.

Neither Waste Connections, Inc. nor Upper Valley Disposal & Recycling responded to repeated requests for comment on recent worker complaints. Local officials I contacted said these matters fall under the jurisdiction of various regional and national regulatory bodies.

In July 2019, Jose Garibay Jr. started as a driver at the Clover Flat landfill and was promoted to supervisor and then operations manager, eventually living on-site. He attributes his demotion and firing in April 2022 to his speaking out about the facilities issues to management.

In a letter Garibay sent to the mayors and city managers of nearby Calistoga, St. Helena and Yountville in January 2023, he said there were constant fires at the composting site and a lack of treatment and process for contaminated leachate.

Employees, he wrote, are not adequately protected and are asked to work and handle unthinkable tasks with little or no training, equipment or protection.

Garibay told me that right after the 2020 glass fire, he was ordered to bring in a group of employees to do a post-fire cleanup at the landfill. He said he had little understanding then of the risks of contamination or the protective measures they should have taken for what he now recognizes as dangerous work.

At the time, we had no training, Garibay said. I mean no one should be out after the fire. It should have been a (hazardous materials) team. Why us?

In February, he filed a complaint with state regulators for alleged unsafe practices, wrongful termination and retaliation.

I decided to do this not for my own benefit, but to help my friends and former colleagues there. They are abused, Garibay told me.

We have employees who have been there since the 90s. They know how bad it is, but they don’t want to talk because they are afraid of losing their jobs. I’m already fired, so I’ll just try to help these guys.

Gary Hernandez, who worked as a waste collection driver from mid-2019 until his resignation in June, said he was one of those people who is afraid to speak out for fear of jeopardizing the financial security of his family if he lost his job.

But when his frustrations with the managers’ treatment, poor procedures, and the demands that he assumes more work caused him to quit anyway, he decided to no longer remain silent.

I left for a lower paying job because I couldn’t handle so much pressure, Hernandez said. They would always expect more and more from me.

He filed two related complaints with the state in June and earlier this month.

His experiences, in many ways, mirrored Garibays, he told me.

Hernandez said drivers had received minimal training for operating large vehicles on narrow and steep roads, which in some cases would result in property damage that was not always handled properly. He also added that there were repeatedly inadequate protective gear, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, when workers were required to drive together in trucks.

As part of his complaint, he proposed that the state order the company to pay $300 million to former and current employees because of potential exposure to unsafe conditions and materials.

In January, the San Francisco Bay Area Water Quality Board finalized a $619,400 fine against Clover Flat Landfill stemming from polluted runoff and other environmental deficiencies discovered in 2019.

Repeated violations, including allegations of insufficient on-site firefighting resources during a 2018 fire and contaminated water that seeped into a creek flowing into the Napa River, also jeopardized the Clover Flat Landfills contract in 2019.

More recently, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, which works to protect fishing and water quality, filed a federal lawsuit last year for discharging untreated polluted stormwater and violations of the Clean Water Act from Clover Flat.

Then-COO Christy Pestoni told me in September that they had invested millions in improvements and that the landfill had recently passed a compliance check by county and state officials. State.

It is unclear what changes have been made or are planned since the takeover of Waste Connections, Inc.

Things that happened before they arrived were not their responsibility, but we think someone should be held accountable, former Saint Helena mayor Ellsworth told me.

Then too, the culture must change. They can’t just come in and keep doing things the same way.

In Your Corner is a column that puts monitoring reports to work for the community. If you have a concern, advice or hunch, you can contact In Your Corner columnist Marisa Endicott at 707-521-5470 or [email protected]. On Twitter @InYourCornerTPD and Facebook @InYourCornerTPD.

[ad_2]