San Francisco currently has its trash taken by truck to a landfill in Livermore, but by 2015 the city's Department of Environment wants to have the trash transported by truck to Oakland, then transferred onto a train for a 130 mile trip to a landfill outside of Wheatland.
The landfill is owned by Recology, formerly NorCal Waste Systems, the company that collects waste in San Francisco. The current contract to ship waste to a landfill operated by a competing company expires in 2015.
Sending the trash to the Yuba County site would be both cost effective and environmentally friendly, according to San Francisco officials.
"It's the best of possible worlds, in one way," said David Assmann, deputy director of the environment department. "We were able to pick the most cost-effective proposal, which was also the green proposal."
Yuba County business leaders have also come out in favor of the deal, saying the $22 million, 10-year-contract is badly needed in the rural county.
But some of the 2,275 residents of Wheatland oppose the plan, pointing out the landfill is near farmland and water sources.
"If these people make a mistake -- an innocent mistake -- the damage is immediate to this area," said Brigit Barnes, an attorney who is representing a group calling itself Yuba Group Against Garbage, or YuGAG.
Recology expects to collect an average of 1,057 tons of trash per day from San Francisco, according to Adam Alberti, a spokesman for the company.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors would have to give its final approve the plan.
