San Diego wants to charge substantially more to toss a ton of trash into the Miramar landfill, which the city maintains.
If the city doesn’t boost “tipping fees,” the city dump will slip into debt in the tens of millions of dollars over the next few years. San Diego now has to keep food waste out of the landfill under a new state mandate, which is adding substantial costs as the city prepares to build a large composting facility, hire dozens more truck drivers and roll-out a new green bin recycling program.
The City Council’s Environment Committee already OK’d the mayor’s proposal to increase so-called “tipping fees” by 71 percent over the next two years. A lobbyist for the private waste disposal industry says such an increase will make Miramar less competitive than other landfills in the region.
An advocate for waste reduction says the city’s fee increase is a step in the right direction, but it’s still not charging enough to cover the true cost of throwing things away in a landfill and the planet-warming emissions that waste generates.
What About This Weather?
A swirling exchange of air pressure drew what the Washington Post called “akin to a bowling ball” of high-altitude cold air southward. The result: twisting bands of moisture sweeping the northern portion of the United States, helping to generate wintery cold air through the southern portion of the continent.
Cities from Oregon to Minnesota are breaking historic snow records. Snow and hail even hit parts of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park this week.
The National Weather Service in San Diego issued its first-ever blizzard warning Thursday for the San Bernardino County Mountains through Saturday.
The intermittent rain in the San Diego-Tijuana region caused the cross-border Tijuana River to begin flowing across the U.S.-Mexico border. Flows of over 200 million gallons per day began Thursday morning, according to the International Boundary and Water Commission, a border water agency that manages cross-border water infrastructure.
In Other News
- The International Boundary and Water Commission agreed to a slew of beefed up measures to prevent sewage from spilling over the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a settlement agreement with San Diego cities that sued over alleged inaction. (Union Tribune)
- The land that Chula Vista has set aside for a university — a vision leaders have long pushed on voters — must be made available for sale or lease to affordable housing developers, according to the state. (Union-Tribune)
- Recently unseal search warrants related to the alleged rape of a young woman by members of San Diego State’s football team revealed specific items the police were looking for during their investigation and that police were also looking at two other men as possible suspects. (KPBS)
The Morning Report was written by MacKenzie Elmer. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.