LULAC speaker urges State Water Board to investigate worker safety and contamination at Napa-area landfill
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Summary
At public forum the State Water Board heard a request from California LULAC for the board to agendize sworn hearings into alleged long-term contamination and worker-safety problems affecting Latino waste workers at several Bay Area facilities, including Clover Flat Landfill in Napa County.
At the State Water Resources Control Board’s public forum on Aug. 19, Jeff Ellsworth, a member of California LULAC and the Napa Valley waste workers advisory committee, urged the board to agendize a formal hearing and said LULAC will provide a national resolution addressing alleged harms to Latino waste workers.
Ellsworth told the board he had recently presented the issues to the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Board and said his committee has documented concerns about long-term exposure to toxic wastewater, fires, alleged unregulated radioactive waste and at least one Latino worker fatality at Upper Valley Disposal Service’s Clover Flat Landfill in Napa County. He said similar recent deaths occurred at Recology in Brisbane and ALCO Scrap Metal in San Leandro and that the pattern suggests a broader systemic problem in the Bay Area.
Why it matters: Ellsworth said workplace safety and environmental mismanagement at these facilities can have both immediate occupational consequences for workers and broader public-health implications if hazardous material escapes into the environment and waterways under the board’s purview.
What Ellsworth asked the board to do
- Agendize the matter for hearings that can include sworn testimony at the soonest possible date. - Implement the State Board’s Racial Equity Action Plan and existing state and federal civil‑rights laws in investigating systemic breakdowns, referencing Water Board Resolution 20 21 0 0 5 0 and other authorities he said were relevant.
Board response and next steps
Chair Joaquin Esquivel acknowledged Ellsworth’s remarks, thanked him for the update on his community engagement and said the board appreciates the information. Ellsworth said he would provide the final LULAC national resolution when available and that he and his committee are coordinating with the California Department of Labor and representatives in the California State Assembly.
Ending
Ellsworth closed by asking the State Water Board to act on the complaint and to ensure oversight and accountability. The board did not state a formal follow-up during public forum; Ellsworth said he would provide documentation and the adopted LULAC resolution to board staff and state agencies.