Salinas politicians want to trade in smelly trash for redevelopment cash. Mayor Dennis Donohue, Councilwoman Gloria De La Rosa and County Supervisor Fernando Armenta recently called for the relocation of the Sun Street Transfer Station from Salinas’ center to make room for a mixed-use development. The only problem is that the Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority board members don’t know where else to put the garbage and recycling facility.

The transfer station may have a short future because Walnut Creek developer Sean Cooley wants to turn the site and surrounding industrial blocks along East Alisal Street into sustainable townhomes and mom-and-pop shops. Donohue and De La Rosa support the Alisal Marketplace project and want the waste facility to move aside. “I firmly believe this location has no long-term future,” Donohue said at the Dec. 20 solid waste authority meeting. “My hope is we get the hell out of there as fast as we can.”

Salinas Councilwoman and authority board member Janet Barnes, however, didn’t share her colleagues’ development zeal. At the meeting, Barnes sided with authority staff who recommended the board authorize environmental work for expanding the transfer station to handle 400 tons per day. The transfer station now processes about 180 tons of trash daily, but the facility is over capacity because the city permit only allows 100 tons.

Even if Cooley had another planned site to move the transfer station, General Manager Stephen Johnson said it would take at least three years for the facility to become operational. Barnes said the Sun Street facility should be expanded while a long-term location is sought. “The trash has to go somewhere,” she said. “We can’t move it that fast.”

The board also discussed using a transfer station on Madison Lane in Salinas’ Boronda area, or sending the garbage to the Monterey Regional Waste Management District Landfill in Marina. But any alternative site will likely encounter similar NIMBYism.

Crazy Horse’s closure is expected to increase trash loads at Sun Street since Salinas and north Monterey County residents will have to go elsewhere to haul their waste. Once Crazy Horse shutters, Sun Street garbage will be transferred to larger trucks and sent to Johnson Canyon Landfill just outside of Gonzales. When this happens, Johnson Canyon will be the Salinas Valley’s only functioning landfill. Since Salinas trash will travel farther, garbage rates are expected to rise.

The waste authority also will pay a price. The authority will pay Gonzales host fees, starting at $150,000 a year while Crazy Horse is open, going up to $250,000 a year, when the Salinas landfill closes. The board approved the so-called memorandum of understanding at its Dec. 20 meeting. In exchange for the money, the city of Gonzales agreed not to sue the authority or oppose further expansion of Johnson Canyon. The authority also agreed to pay an estimated $2.3 million to improve roads to the landfill and pick up litter, among other things.

Still, the plan is not without its critics. Gonzales City Councilman Matt Gourley, who voted against the MOU, opposes any expansion of Johnson Canyon. “I think there has to be another place,” Gourley says. “We are not at the center of the waste stream.” Gourley adds that because of agricultural easements Gonzales can only grow in the area toward the landfill site.

Adding more trash to Johnson Canyon also has unnerved growers, most recently because of concerns that the landfill could contribute to E. coli contamination in adjacent crops. A study refuted this claim. In May, the Monterey County Planning Commission approved a 16-acre expansion of Johnson Canyon.

Previously, the solid waste authority had considered building a new landfill near San Lucas, but property owners protested. The board wants to move from burying trash, and instead ramp up recycling and convert waste into energy. By 2015, the authority wants to divert 75 percent of its trash from the landfill.

Johnson estimates about 50 percent of Salinas Valley waste is recycled. “Our single biggest job is not managing trash,” Johnson says, “it’s public education. If we are really good at what we do, people make less trash.”

But Salinas-area residents still need a long-term place to haul their trash and drop off hazardous waste materials and recyclables. The authority had planned to increase the trash intake at Sun Street Transfer Station to 1,500 tons a day. But the Salinas United Business Association complained the expansion would result in too much traffic and decrease the adjacent business district’s property values. So the authority explored a scaled-back expansion of Sun Street. But with Alisal Marketplace on deck, now even that option doesn’t seem politically viable.

It would cost nearly $3.8 million to build a scaled-back transfer station that may only be operational for a couple of years. Weary of throwing money at a temporary location, the authority board postponed a vote on the Sun Street expansion at its December meeting. Between now and the February meeting Salinas officials hope to devise a plan that meets increased garbage demand without stinking up the city’s redevelopment hopes.