Earthworks Industries Inc. (“Company”) wishes to report on its progress with the development of its integrated waste handling project at the Cortina Rancheria in Colusa County, California. The project is being developed by the Company’s wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, Cortina Integrated Waste Management Inc. (CIWM).
The Company recently confirmed that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9 (EPA) received a letter from the Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation containing the Kletsel Environmental Regulatory Authority’s (KERA) comments on the Site-Specific Flexibility Requests (SSFRs) submitted by SCS Engineers (SCS) on behalf of the Company in August of 2022. EPA is now evaluating the August 2022 revised SSFRs for tentative approval pursuant to EPA’s “Site-Specific Flexibility Requests for Municipal Solid Waste Landfills in Indian Country” Draft Guidance.
Over the past month CIWM’s project engineers and technical consultants, SCS, have prepared a response to KERA’s comments to address any technical aspects or additional requirements. On February 2, 2023, the responses were provided to EPA and KERA.
KERA’S submittal letter of November 16, 2022, states that KERA has approved four of the six SSFRs, but raises some concerns through its comments with respect to two others: Groundwater Monitoring and Alternate Final Cover design. The responses from SCS address each of KERA’s concerns and advised that there is sufficient data provided for the EPA’s tentative approval of the Groundwater Monitoring SSFR. They have also confirmed that the Cover design meets all applicable federal and California regulatory standards and is also sufficiently documented for EPA tentative approval.
David Atkinson, President/CEO of Earthworks Industries, commented, “We are extremely pleased at SCS’s findings and encouraged by the continued collaboration between KERA and CIWM to get these SSFRs through the federal approval process”.