Santa Cruz Co. running out of space to store mud from storm damage

Huge piles of dirt from slides caused by relentless rain storms are not only taking over roads, but also the Santa Cruz County Public Works equipment yard.

“We are running out of space,” said Dawne Harman, Santa Cruz County Public Works Road Superintendent. “We don’t have a place long term or permanent to take the slide material.”

“There are slides everywhere,” said Tracy Miller, owner of MTM Truck and Tractor.

Public Works said right now they are storing thousands of yards of material. This is the second time it’s been this full in the last several weeks.

“Bear with us,” said Harman. “It’s taking us a long time to get to you and this is why. We have a lot of material that we’re moving.”

Officials said they’ve even had to store dirt on the sides of roads.

“We’ve had a number of slides on Zayante,” said Harman. “Rather than haul it all the way here, we’ll stock pile it. Let it dewater a little bit, we’ll pick it up at a later date.”

Once mud and rocks are dry, they’re hauled to the Buena Vista Landfill, but even that is getting cramped.

“They use the dirt to cover garbage and at some point they have too much,” said Harman. “So they would rather not hang on to our dirt if they don’t have a use for it.”

Officials said discussions are underway about the dilemma. But for now, they’re just going to keep piling and hope they make it through the year.

“There’s more storms coming and these mountain roads can be dangerous,” said Miller. “Everything’s saturated, so there’s bound to be more slides.”