Customers Required to Wear Face Mask for Entry. Limits on Acceptable Items Expanded Slightly
There will no longer be a limit to the number of vehicles that can access McCourtney Road Transfer Station, but customers seeking to utilize the facility will be required to wear a face covering and will continue to be limited in the type of materials they can haul to the facility.
The easing of a vehicle count restriction will begin Wednesday, May 6th.
The decision to expand vehicle counts at the transfer station was made as a result of new procedures put in place that provide additional safeguards for Waste Management employees and customers as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. The most important change is that all customers are required to wear a face mask to access the facility.
Waste Management and Nevada County continue to ask residents to only access the station if they are disposing of essential items such as household trash, green waste, construction and demolition debris or comingled recycling. Starting Wednesday, the transfer station will also begin to accept furniture but not appliances.
“Our top priority is always the safety of our employees and customers,” said Waste Management. “To accommodate record-breaking customer visits at the facility during an unprecedented pandemic, we’ve had to institute different protocols to maintain safety, including a requirement that all customers wear face masks and that all employees are provided proper protective equipment.”
McCourtney Road Transfer Station is a critical piece of the county’s infrastructure that must remain operational for the county, Grass Valley and Nevada City to have an outlet for the tons of waste generated each day in the region. Policies restricting use of the facility were put in place to limit the exposure Waste Management employees have to COVID-19 and to protect customers from spreading the disease amongst themselves. The transfer station risks being entirely shut down if an employee is infected with COVID-19.
A complete shutdown of the facility would be disastrous for the region as trash would pile up at homes and on the street as there would be no place to dispose of municipal solid waste.
Initial attempts to convince Nevada County residents to only use the transfer station to dispose of essential items failed as the facility continued to have more vehicles arriving daily than before the COVID-19 pandemic began. An attempt to limit the total number of vehicles created unrest and unruly behavior among customers that also placed Waste Management employees at risk.
Employees at the transfer station will be outfitted with additional personal protective equipment and temporary shelters will be constructed to provide proper shielding in areas where customers must interact with a Waste Management employee. All employees have also been instructed to contact the police if they feel threatened by a customer.
Waste Management will open all 12 trash bays at the public drop off area but cautions customers that there is no guarantee that they can follow proper social distancing protocols when using the area. That is why face masks are mandatory. Half of the bays had previously been closed to allow for proper social distancing.
Items not accepted at McCourtney Road Transfer Station until further notice continue to be household hazardous waste, appliances and CRV recyclable bottles and cans. CRV materials can be disposed of in the comingled recycling pile but customers will not be reimbursed.
Customers can check wm.com/alerts for updated information about closures and restrictions.
