The Bay Area Air District has ordered operators of a San Jose waste management facility to correct air quality issues and reduce odors.<\/p>\n
The Newby Island Resource Recovery Park, located in north San Jose, is a landfill and recycling center bound by Interstate 880 to the east and the waterfront Alviso neighborhood to the west.<\/p>\n
It is operated by Phoenix-based company Republic Services Inc. through its subsidiaries International Disposal Corp. of California, which oversees the landfill, and Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc., which runs the recycling center.<\/p>\n
According to the order, issued Wednesday by the Hearing Board of the Bay Area Air District, the facility is responsible for hazardous gas emissions over the years, prompting odor complaints from neighborhoods in San Jose, Milpitas, Fremont, and Newark.<\/p>\n
The Bay Area Air District is the agency responsible for protecting the air quality in the region.<\/p>\n
The Hearing Board is a five-member body within the air district that can issue abatement orders to pollution-causing entities, in this case, the operators of the Newby Island Resource Recovery Park.<\/p>\n
A 2024 study by the air district found that the Newby Island facility was the major source of the odors that residents were complaining about. Hydrogen sulfide, a gas linked to headaches, nausea, and asthma, was the primary pollutant causing the odors, a news release from the district said.<\/p>\n
In December 2025, the district ordered the operators of the facility to install continuous emission monitors to track hydrogen sulfide, after an investigation revealed that they were underreporting pollution concentrations.<\/p>\n
Wednesday’s abatement order reiterates the need for continuous emission monitors and directs the operators to improve landfill inspections using drones to better detect methane leaks.<\/p>\n
Another requirement outlined in the order is to automate the landfill gas collection system and to install air pollution monitors along the perimeter of the facility.<\/p>\n
“Families in the South Bay have lived with persistent odors and uncertainty about what is in the air near their homes,” said Philip Fine, executive officer of the Bay Area Air District, in the news release. “This order establishes enforceable deadlines, stronger monitoring and clear consequences if Newby Island fails to comply.”<\/p>\n
Failure to comply with the abatement order will lead to further enforcement, and the district will separately assess fines for the violations that led to this abatement order.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the International Disposal Corp. of California said that the firm appreciates the air district and the Hearing Board’s focus on increasing transparency around air quality concerns and will comply with the order.<\/p>\n
“IDCC will continue working constructively with regulators, residents and local stakeholders to meet those requirements,” said spokesperson Yessica del Rincon in an email. “IDCC and the Newby Island Landfill provide an essential service to our customers and remain committed to operating the facility safely and reliably.”<\/p>\n
Previously, in 2022, International Disposal Corp. of California and Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc. agreed to pay $210,000 to settle with the district over 30 notices of violation from 2014 to 2020 for non-compliance with air quality regulations at the landfill.<\/p>\n
The violations included landfill gas surface leaks associated with composting operations in 2014 and 2015, landfill wellhead positive pressure violations between 2015 and 2019, and gas collection shutdowns in 2019. The settlement also cited public nuisance violations based on odor complaints between 2014 and 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bay Area Air District has ordered operators of a San Jose waste management facility to correct air…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-446335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}