Laws must safeguard copper recycling

A new recycling plant in Kings County is awaiting approval by the county to recycle metals such as copper wire.

However, concerned officials said new guidelines need to be enacted that would ensure metal recyclers are not accepting stolen goods.

The Recycle Depot, which currently operates a facility in Visalia, wants to recycle ferrous metals at a facility on Fifth Street just east of 10th Avenue in a county island.

The concern is the facility could make it easier for metal thieves to turn items like copper wire into quick cash.

The price of copper has gone up as demand for farming irrigation, phone lines and other industrial uses has increased, both in California and abroad in expanding economies in India and China.

Copper can sell for more than $3 a pound, and has become an attractive target for up-all-night methamphetamine addicts who can sell the stolen wire for quick cash.

Russell Notturno, who manages the new recycling yard, said The Recycle Depot takes every precaution to make sure goods received are not stolen, including photographing every truck that enters the scale.

"We copy your I.D. and scan it, and anytime you come in, whatever you brought in, we've got a picture of it," he said in May.

Notturno said he believes the plant would be good for the county because they would accept items like old refrigerators and stoves that can clog landfills.

A state Assembly bill that would have made it more difficult to recycle stolen goods was killed earlier this year after lobbying by the scrap metal industry.

It would have required recyclers to pay sellers with a check 10 days after receipt of goods and to photograph the seller, among other restrictions.

"The Legislature failed to get tough enough, so now the recycling industry will have to deal with county ordinances that are way tougher than this bill, and I'll be cheering those counties on," said Assemblyman Tom Berryhill from Modesto in a statement.

Another bill supported by the recycling industry was defeated earlier this month in the state assembly that would have negated metal theft laws at the county level.

Several counties, including Fresno, Madera, San Joaquin and Stanislaus, have passed ordinances aimed at curbing the recycling of stolen metals.

But two lawsuits filed by recyclers in Fresno County pertaining to the ordinance suggest local governments that have passed their own anti-metal-theft rules could lose them because the regulations are too stringent.

The California Farm Bureau Federation said agriculture thefts in Kings County in 2006 accounted for $1 million in losses; $400,000 of that was from metal theft, said Danielle Rau, spokeswoman for the Federation.

Kings County Supervisor Tony Oliveira, who had $10,000 in copper wire stolen from his land, said the Rural Crime Task Force has deterred much of the rural crime, but laws need to be established that regulate the recycling industry.

"We need to put some teeth in the ordinances to keep the bad guys out that doesn't put an unfair burden on the legal guys," he said.

The California State Sheriff's Association and California Farm Bureau Federation is circulating an ordinance that they recommend the region adopt that is more strict than the one killed in the state assembly.

It recommends a number of measures to deter thieves, including copying the seller's driver's license, copying the license plate of the vehicle transporting the goods, identifying all materials recycled and fingerprinting the seller. This information would be reported to the Sheriff's Office.

"We're recommending this because of the huge increase in metal theft in the state," said Steve Szalay, executive director of the Sheriff's Association. "It's a problem all over the state, but particularly in Central California."

"I won't stop until we have a law in place," said Oliveira.

Bill Zumwalt, planning director for Kings County, said if the permit for The Recycle Depot is approved by the planning commission, it would then be recommended to the county Board of Supervisors. If they approve it, the recycler could start recycling metals as early as November.

"Any recycle permit we issue would point them towards the laws of identifying the people doing the recycling," he said.

The reporter can be reached at 582-0471, ext. 3043.

(Sept. 24, 2007)