Stanislaus County leaders to consider costs for well permits, dump fees for tires

Stanislaus County leaders will consider charging $106 an hour for staff time to conduct a more stringent review of well permit applications.

The Board of Supervisors also will consider other fee increases Tuesday morning, some of which would raise the cost of leaving tires, mattresses and large dead animals at the Fink Road Landfill near Crows Landing.

Last year, the county gave routine approval to more than 500 well permit requests before a new policy went into effect Nov. 25. Applicants on or after that date face a more costly and time-consuming process of showing their large wells won’t have an undesirable effect on groundwater levels. The review policy grew from concerns that widespread orchard planting in Stanislaus County is overdrafting groundwater.

Jami Aggers, county Environmental Resources Department director, said the county has retained consultants with expertise in hydrology and environmental regulations to review well permit requests. Her department is still working out the application costs, which will include a filing fee, the costs for the consultants and $106 an hour for work done by county staff members.

Aggers had no estimate on the total cost for a well permit request. Only a few people wanting new wells have contacted the county since Nov. 25 and they have not submitted applications, Aggers said. Well requests that trigger an environmental review are expected to take months to process.

The county also is proposing to more than double the fees on bringing discarded tires to the Fink landfill. The tires delivered to the landfill are loaded onto trailers owned by Golden By-Products, which is jacking up what it charges the county to remove the tires by 225 percent.

The county would recover its costs by raising the landfill fee for car, pickup and motorcycle tires from $1 to $2.50 apiece, diesel truck tires from $6.50 to $15 each, tractor tires from $10 to $25 each, and earthmover tires from $100 to $225 each.

The fee for bulk tires would increase from $100 to $225 per ton.

Aggers said Environmental Resources approached another waste-tire vendor but the business wanted to charge similar rates. There are worries the steeper landfill fees could lead to illegal dumping of tires along roadsides.

“That is always the concern we have with tires,” Aggers said. “We don’t have a choice at this point because the tire vendors have raised their prices to us considerably.”

In other fee adjustments, it would cost more to dispose of a dead horse at the landfill, and the facility would start charging for other carcasses including llamas, donkeys and mules. The current $50 fee would increase to $100 per animal.

The landfill fee for mattresses or futons would be $10 each, a $2 increase to recover higher disposal costs.

In other proposed changes, the county will consider:

▪ Revising the fees for inspection of underground fuel storage tanks, charging a $522 flat fee, plus $100 for each tank. The revised fees would generate almost $42,000 in additional revenue to cover increased costs of the inspection program.

▪ Charging higher fees to community event organizers that fail to submit permit applications for temporary food facilities at least two weeks before an event. The charge will be 50 percent on top of the regular food permit fees, which range from $211 to $1,114.

▪ Imposing a 10 percent increase in the regulatory fees for hospitals, clinics and nursing homes that generate medical waste. It would be the first increase since 2008.

▪ Raising the fee from $783 to $2,000 for inspections to ensure surface mines comply with codes and reclamation plans. A mine re-inspection would cost $755, up from $222.

▪ Increasing Public Works engineering fees. Excavation permits would climb from $20 to $40; construction permits from $40 to $60; grading permits from $30 to $50; and improvement plan checks from $95 an hour to $105 an hour.

▪ Charging a new fee of $285 for pipeline maintenance agreements. The agreements ensure a pipe owner is responsible for maintenance when a pipeline is laid under a county road.

This story was originally published April 27, 2015 at 7:14 PM with the headline "Stanislaus County leaders to consider costs for well permits, dump fees for tires."