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Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Report Page IV.D-7 <br /> Forward Inc. Landfill 2018 Revised Project <br /> To account for the warming potential of GHGs,GHG emissions are often quantified and <br /> reported as CO2 equivalents(CO2e). The effects of GHG emission sources (i.e., individual <br /> projects) are reported in metric tons/year of CO2e.There is widespread international scientific <br /> agreement that human-caused increases in GHGs has and will continue to contribute to global <br /> warming, although there is much uncertainty concerning the magnitude and rate of the <br /> warming. <br /> Some of the potential resulting effects in California of global warming may include loss in snow <br /> pack, sea level rise, more extreme heat days per year,more high ozone days,more large forest <br /> fires, and more drought years. Globally, climate change has the potential to affect numerous <br /> environmental resources through potential, though uncertain, impacts related to future air <br /> temperatures and precipitation patterns.The projected effects of global warming on weather <br /> and climate are likely to vary regionally,but are expected to include the following direct effects: <br /> • Higher maximum temperatures and more hot days over nearly all land areas; <br /> • Higher minimum temperatures, fewer cold days, and fewer frost days over nearly all <br /> land areas; <br /> • Reduced diurnal temperature range over most land areas; <br /> • Increase of heat index over land areas;and <br /> • More intense precipitation events. <br /> Landfills typically emit some CO2 and methane from the creation of landfill gas. When <br /> municipal solid wastes are buried in a landfill, a complex series of biochemical reactions occur <br /> in which anaerobic microorganisms decompose a portion of the organic fraction of the wastes to <br /> CO2 and methane,while the remainder does not appreciably degrade and is considered to be <br /> sequestered or stored. The methane and CO2 produced may be collected and flared or <br /> converted to energy,which oxidizes the methane emitted in the exhaust to CO2. The methane <br /> can also be oxidized to carbon dioxide by methanotrophic bacteria in the landfill cover soil. <br /> Therefore,the ultimate fate of carbon placed in the landfill is either sequestration or in <br /> emissions as CH4 or CO2. Management and treatment of waste ultimately leads to management <br /> of the method by which the carbon is released back into the environment, similarly changing <br /> the climate-related impacts upon the way waste is stored,treated, and disposed. The CARB <br /> estimated that in 2015, landfills produced 8.40 million metric tons of CO2e GHG emissions, or <br /> 1.9 percent of the state total.' Landfills are a source of carbon dioxide and methane, which are <br /> greenhouse gasses (GHGs);however,the carbon dioxide is biogenic and would have been <br /> emitted whether the landfill existed or not. As biogenic emissions, carbon dioxide is not <br /> included in the GHG emissions,which is consistent with how carbon dioxide is treated in state <br /> and federal GHG programs. Methane is a result of the anaerobic conditions in the landfill and <br /> is anthropogenic. <br /> e California Air Resources Board,2017 Edition California Greenhouse Gas Inventory for 2000-2015 by Sector <br /> and Activity,June 6,2017. <br />