COMPLIANCE INFO_FINAL INITIAL STUDY/MITIGATED NEGATIVE DECLARATION 5/25

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North County Recycling Center and Sanitary Landfill Permit Revision Project Final Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration · San Joaquin County | May 2025 40 District recommends assessing project-specific GHG emission impacts on global climate change based on the tiered approach specified in the Policy: • Projects complying with an approved GHG emission reduction plan or GHG mitigation program which avoids or substantially reduces GHG emissions within the geographic area in which the project is located would be determined to have a less than significant individual and cumulative impact for GHG emissions. Such plans or programs must be specified in law or approved by the Lead Agency with jurisdiction over the affected resource and supported by a CEQA compliant environmental review document adopted by the Lead Agency. Projects complying with an approved GHG emission reduction plan or GHG mitigation program would not be required to implement Best Performance Standards (BPS). • Projects implementing BPS would not require quantification of project specific GHG emissions. Consistent with the CEQA Guidelines, such projects would be determined to have a less-than-significant individual and cumulative impact for GHG emissions. • Projects not implementing BPS would require quantification of project specific GHG emissions and demonstration that project-specific GHG emissions would be reduced or mitigated by at least 29 percent compared to Business as Usual (BAU), including GHG emission reductions achieved since the 2002-2004 baseline period, consistent with GHG emission reduction targets established in CARB’s 2008 Scoping Plan. Projects achieving at least a 29 percent GHG emission reduction compared to BAU would be determined to have a less-than-significant individual and cumulative impact for GHG emissions. The Valley Air District has not approved BPS for landfills but does require compliance with the CARB regulations related to the reduction of methane emissions from MSWs. DISCUSSION OF IMPACTS a) Generate greenhouse gas emissions, either directly or indirectly, that may have a significant impact on the environment? Less-than-Significant Impact The project would not change the North County Landfill’s design capacity of 41.2 million cubic yards of disposal and would not involve construction of new facilities. The amount of waste-in- place when the landfill reaches its design capacity would remain the same. The project would increase the maximum amount of allowed daily refuse disposal and the number of daily incoming refuse trucks from 1,200 tons per day and 850 trucks per day to 4,000 tons and 1,200 trucks per day. This increase would involve a change in refuse truck routing; approximately 51 transfer trucks that currently go to the Foothill Landfill would be re-routed to the North County Landfill. The average trip distance for the re-routed trucks is expected to decrease due to the location of the North County Landfill. Although the number of truck trips to North County Landfill would increase, partially due to routing changes, the total vehicle miles travelled by refuse trucks would decrease by approximately 5.7 percent from 1,678,144 miles to 1,582,797 miles in 2026. The increase in daily refuse disposal would increase the use of off-road equipment associated with landfill operations. However, this would be offset due to the reduction of off-road equipment at Foothill Landfill. Implementation of the project would result in net increases in off-road equipment usage on the project site, and project-generated vehicle trips along the haul route. Although the project would