Emotions spilled over at the Kings County Planning Commission public hearing Monday night, when protesters came face-to-face with the decision-makers who were asked to approve a controversial plan for hazardous waste landfill expansion near Kettleman City.

The anger surrounding the project and the county's handling of the public process has been brewing for some time, but the pressure cooker exploded -- even before the public comment period started.

One man stood up and demanded Spanish translation by an independent party, not someone hired by Waste Management, and a full five minutes to speak in addition to the translation. But he was denied.

That's when anger erupted and yelling began.

As police officers looked on, the upset Kettleman City resident hollered words of protest in Spanish while holding up a picture of a baby with birth defects. Commission Chairman Mark Cartwright warned the man against further disruption, but the testy exchange went on for more than 10 minutes.

The hearing eventually began with relative calm as Waste Management supporters were first allowed to speak in favor of the project. But 60 minutes into the hearing, a raucous crowd of 50 or so protesters -- mostly Kettleman City residents -- began rallying outside the hearing room at the Kings Fair. They chanted in Spanish, "What do we want?" A replying chorus cried, "Justice!" "When," they continued. "Today!" others chanted back.

"Si, se puede! Si, se puede!" a rallying cry resounded.

This time, the man leading the rally -- Ramon Mares, who had also spoken up earlier -- was escorted out of the fairgrounds by police who were ordered by the commission to quell the crowd. 

The scene was a packed, emotion-charged exhibit hall at the Kings Fair, where project supporters far outnumbered the protesters and a majority of the audience were employees of Waste Management or their friends and families.

The crowd had come to the key public hearing on the landfill expansion project in Kettleman Hills proposed by Waste Management. The hearing marked the culmination of a five-year planning process for the company.

After eight hours of marathon hearing, the commission closed the public comment period Monday night. The commission is expected to vote on the matter on Monday.

 Waste Management wants to expand the existing hazardous waste landfill by 14 acres and build a new 64-acre landfill at its Kettleman Hills Facility. The company says the project is necessary and important for the region because it will extend the Kettleman Hills Facility's hazardous waste capacity by more than 30 years.

"It is a very important project not just for the Central Valley, but for the state. About 30 percent of the hazardous waste comes from the Valley, 30 percent from Northern California and 30 percent from Southern California," said Kit Cole, spokeswoman for Waste Management.

"It is because of the Kettleman Hills landfill that sites like PacBell (now AT&T) Park in San Francisco can be built, all of the lead paint from Golden Gate Bridge could be cleaned up and the Archie Crippen Tire Fire site in Fresno could be cleaned up. It is a critical resource for the state of California as well as locally for businesses."

There are only three landfills in the state, and Kettleman is one of only two that accept hazardous waste, such as batteries, lead paint and contaminated soil, Cole said.

"It makes the availability of the space at the Kettleman Hills Facility that much more important," she said.

Kettleman City, a town of 1,500, is about 3.5 miles from Waste Management's 474-acre landfill operation. The company buries the hazardous waste materials under successive layers of dirt, and landfills are lined with hard plastic to prevent leakage into the soil.

Company officials say the geology of the region is such that, if there was a leakage, it would percolate into rock layers unconnected to Kettleman City's water supply, making it an ideal location.

The environmental analysis for the project does acknowledge the proposed landfill expansion would cause significant impact on air pollution and greenhouse gas but finds no evidence of adverse impact on the community's public health.

But residents don't buy it. For years, they have complained about higher rates of asthma, cancer and birth defects.

"It's honorable that they are defending their jobs. But we are here defending our lives," said Maricela Mares-Alatorre, a Kettleman City activist leading a grassroots group called El Pueblo Para El Aire y Agua Limpio, referring to an estimated 500 Waste Management employees and supporters who came out wearing green "Waste Management" T-shirts and hats.

"My neighbor just lost a baby, and that baby was going to have a cleft palate. It would've been the sixth birth within two years of cleft-palate babies in Kettleman City," Mares-Alatorre said. "There is something so wrong there. And the fact that they'd take economic gain over the health of our people every single time speaks volumes."

Many Waste Management employees disagreed.

"As a single mother, my health and my daughter's health are the most important thing ... But there is no proof that we cause harm even though they want us to believe that," said Rosa Salazar, one of dozens of employees who spoke. "But take a look at me and all the workers who are standing here today. We're living proof."

Responding to a concern regarding birth defects, Kings County health officials said they have requested the state birth defect monitoring program to provide an updated analysis of birth defect statistics in Kettleman City.

Opponents argue the project should not be approved at least until the investigation rules out environmental exposure as the cause. They also accused county health officials of inaction.

Dr. Michael Mac Lean, county health officer, countered that the state data is a far more reliable scientific approach than a door-to-door survey approach which activists demand county officials initiate.

"If the United States doesn't know what causes most birth defects, what do you think is the probability that we're going to figure this out on four cases?" Mac Lean said. "There's no science that can be done with four cases. We will only find what might possibly have caused this. We're going to end up with the same thing we started with."

Bradley Angel, executive director of San Francisco-based Greenaction, called the public process "rigged to the core." He complained that the hearing was held 30 miles away from Kettleman City late in the evening, that proponents were given more time to speak and that Spanish translation of the hearing agenda was not provided, even though the county lost a lawsuit in 1991 over a similar issue.

"Kettleman City is the picture postcard of environmental racism in the United States today. And what we're seeing today is how it plays out," Angel said.

Angel also raised issue with Boeing's recent plan to haul radioactive waste from the Santa Susana Field Laboratory to Kettleman Hills that is being considered by the state and Waste Management.

Cole said that is nothing new. Getting a request from Boeing is "business as usual," she said.

"All the waste gets screened at state-certified labs," Cole said. "If it doesn't meet the standard, we reject it. We reject loads every day."

The reporter can be reached at 583-2429.

(Oct. 6, 2009)