For 33 years Chuck Magee has worked for the County of Kern to increase the efficiency of diversion, transfer, and landfill operations within the waste operations activities for the County of Kern.  Starting with working at landfills doing load checking and facility operations as a Waste Aide and moving up through each position in the Department to his current level as a Public Works Manager. Mr. Magee has achieved and maintained compliance with the AB 939 regulations for having a minimum 50% recycling rate. This work has included decreasing the cost of operations at transfer facilities and landfills by replacing contract staff with County staff and increasing the diversion rate at facilities under County staffed operations.

Mr. Magee applied for and received millions of dollars in grant funds for the county; implemented new waste diversion programs, and worked closely with all jurisdictions in the County to coordinate programs and procedures to remain compliant with current regulations and goals. He has also worked to improve the public perception of the Department through various public service campaigns and advertisements.

Mr. Magee participates on the Solid Waste Management Association of North America board as an active board member and participates on the Legislative Task Force for SWANA. He also reviews proposed regulations and provides comments regarding the effect the proposed regulations would have on solid waste operations.

Session Code: 3A

Track: Operations

Session Name: Municipal Composting

Session Time: 4:15 – 5:45 PM

Presentation Title: Overcoming Challenges to Develop Compost Infrastructure

Presentation Description: Recent regulations in California has created a need to develop and build additional compost infrastructure to accommodate the increased organic diversion requirements caused by the regulations. To meet this need municipalities are forced to overcome a number of obstacles to the siting and construction of a new compost facility. This presentation will discuss those issues and how Kern County overcame them to construct a new 100,000TPY CASP compost facility.