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.
The Company recently received acknowledgment from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that it has received a letter from the Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation containing the Kletsel Environmental Regulatory Authority’s (KERA) review of the Site-Specific Flexibility Requests (SSFRs) submitted by SCS Engineers (SCS) on behalf of the Company in August of 2022. EPA has now begun its evaluation of the August 2022 revised SSFR pursuant to EPA’s “Site-Specific Flexibility Requests for Municipal Solid Waste Landfills in Indian Country” Draft Guidance.
Management is now in the process of updating budgets for additional tasks at Cortina including access, air/water permits and additional well construction. SCS, our project engineers, advised that they do not see any significant concerns raised by KERA‘s review and that SCS expects to get its response to KERA’s comments to EPA within the next couple weeks. Based on EPA’s expected turnaround of approximately 90 days for review, the Company expects to provide a timeline for construction and potential operation of the facility shortly after that time.
In addition to completing the long process of federal approval of the SSFRs, a next step in project development will be to identify other companies with the best available technology for each component of the operation, which should create a blueprint and opportunity for future locations.
Earthworks’ Cortina project is about bringing together environmentally conscious developers with first nations and industry to create economically viable paths for future sustainability of these operations. We believe we are on the cusp of creating significant value at Cortina, and a vibrant model for other first nations in North America.