The Center on Policy Initiatives is calling for an immediate investigation of the contract for methane gas control at Miramar Landfill and the procedures for monitoring the contractor, given the company’s record of serious air-quality violations.

CPI also is urging reinstatement of an environmental management system at the landfill that was quietly dissolved last spring as the City of San Diego prepared to seek private bidders to take over the operation. The system was certified by the International Organization of Standardization (ISO).

In a memo to the City Council, Mayor and administration, CPI Research and Policy Director Murtaza Baxamusa said repeated failures by the contractor, Fortistar Methane Group, had caused unsafe levels of methane and hydrogen sulfide at Miramar that violated state standards. The City failed to hold the contractor accountable for correcting the problems.

Mayor Jerry Sanders sought bids in July to privatize the entire landfill operation. The system of collecting methane gas at the landfill is already contracted to the private company, Fortistar.

The CPI memo, with backup documents attached, is available here.

Baxamusa raised the disappearance of the ISO certification at the December 1 meeting of the City Council’s Natural Resources and Culture Committee. The committee voted to ask the mayor’s staff to report in January on why the certification was dropped and how it might be reinstated.

At the same meeting, five major environmental organizations urged the City to conduct a full Environmental Impact Report before privatizing Miramar, because of many potentially serious consequences. Video of the meeting is on the City’s website