UPDATE: On Saturday, 35 speakers testified during a six-hour meeting to determine if the South Coast Air Quality Management District will impose changes on Rainbow Environmental Services' waste management facility. The board was unable to come to a conclusion on the matter, therefore Huntington Beach residents will need to wait until Thursday for a decision. 

The proposed changes on the facility include stricter regulations on Rainbow regarding dust and odor, restricting Rainbow to receiving no more than 2,800 tons of waste per day, and fully enclosing areas of the facility where the business sorts waste, recyclables, and green waste.

The board will reconvene at 9 a.m. on Nov. 12 at the agency's headquarters.

Dive Brief:

• Orange County, CA waste hauler Rainbow Environmental Services has agreed to build a structure and expand others to manage the odors and pollutants from its 17.6-acre waste facility, which Huntington Beach residents and faculty of a nearby school have complained about for years.
• Many citizens are not satisfied that the area Rainbow intends to enclose will sufficiently address the environmental problem they say infiltrates their community. Nor are they happy with the project time frame, which could span two years for construction and permitting.
• With a Nov. 7 hearing pending, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) is considering an order of abatement mandating Rainbow to take additional actions to address the pollution.

Dive Insight:

Rainbow has protested to South Coast AQMD for years over conditions pertaining to its waste-processing permit. The facility has received 10 citations for violations, mostly for noxious odors, since Nov. 2013.

But Rainbow and the AQMD have come to terms on a few conditions, including a key agreement that most of the facility’s operations will be enclosed, by expanding and retrofitting existing facilities with proper venting and pollution equipment and building new structures, according to the Orange County Register.

As the hearing approaches, Sue Gordon, Rainbow’s director of communications said, "We are happy to move forward and get this done."

Gina Clayton-Tarvin, president of the Ocean View School District Board of Trustees, said she is satisfied with AQMD’s actions to date, but said the board will still file lawsuits against Rainbow and its parent company Republic Services, the city of Huntington Beach, and the Orange County Health Care Agency over issues rising from the dump's poor condition.