Mendocino County funds Round Valley Indian Tribes’ cleanup of illegal dumpsites

MENDOCINO CO., 01/02/25 – Mendocino County’s Round Valley, home to the town of Covelo and the Round Valley Indian Tribes—a confederation of seven tribes forced onto Yuki land in the 1850s—is known for its natural beauty and solitude. Despite its rural appeal, the Native community has struggled to maintain its serene environment in spite of the illegal dumpsites scattered across the reservation. These locations include abandoned marijuana grow sites, old RVs rusting along the roadside and out-of-commission appliances piled up on empty lots.  

In 2021, frustrated by the severity of illegal waste and its impact on both the Round Valley Reservation and the town of Covelo, James Russ, executive director of the Round Valley Indian Tribes (RVIT), took it upon himself to address the issue. He called on the community for help while seeking grants and financial support from the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors and other sources to fund the cleanup efforts he organized. According to Russ, the tribes’ cleanup crews have already removed 250 to 300 old vehicles over the past few years. 

“We need the resources up here, and we are trying to the best we can with what we have,” Russ said during an interview. Russ noted that the cleanup projects he initiated focused primarily on the former Louisiana-Pacific Corporation mill site off Highway 162 East. Based in Tennessee, Louisiana-Pacific manufactures building products. “In the meantime, we got a couple smaller grants and worked on the dump near the old LP mill site that was on tribal land, and we cleaned that whole place up. We got our own resources, and we told the county, we aren’t waiting for you guys. We are going to start doing this on our own.”   

Around the same time, Russ and other tribal directors began working with the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors to start the long process of applying for a Community Development Block Grant. Administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the program provides annual grants to cities, counties and federally recognized tribes for infrastructure improvements, economic development and public services. 

In 2024, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors announced that the RVIT would finally be receiving some of the funds needed to assist their cleanup projects on the reservation. To the RVIT’s delight, the block grant program awarded $500,000 in grant funds to the tribal group, which will help the tribes clean up at least two large-scale dumpsites on the reservation. (The number of cleanup projects could increase if not all the funds are used within one year.) At their meeting in December, the board of supervisors approved the agreement with the RVIT to launch a large-scale cleanup program in 2025 with the grant money. The project will involve the tribes, the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District (MCRCD), private contractors and community groups. The project is formally called the Covelo and Round Valley Community Cleanup Program.  

Despite the tribal group’s excitement over receiving the grant money, Russ said it wasn’t as much funding as he had initially hoped for and won’t make as large of a dent in cleaning up the dumpsites. 

“Originally, we had submitted an application for $1 million for the cleanup program, but the board informed us we only got 50 percent [$500,000] of what we applied for,” Russ said. “Kelly Hansen, the county’s project and grant manager, and other county employees also sent me a budget contract to look at, and it stated only $104,000 was initially available for our tribe’s cleanup.”   

To Russ’ disappointment, after a lengthy conversation with Hansen, he was informed that under the block grant program, a lot of the funding is subject to an open bidding process. Under the block grant program, contracts and grants over $250,000 usually must be subject to an open bidding process to guarantee fairness and transparency in how the funds are being spent.  

For this specific grant money, Russ was told that $104,101.60 would be initially given to the RVIT, while another $218,000 that will also be used eventually for the cleanup, will first have to be put up for a bidding process. This opens the door for contractors and companies from cities like Ukiah and Willits to compete in the project. Russ had hoped that much of the money could be used to hire contractors and workers in Round Valley. 

The remaining funds will cover administrative costs and other services involved with the county administering the disbursal and bidding. 

Russ explained that this is the first time the RVIT has received a community block grant. While he appreciates the funds and the county’s support, he stated that the bureaucratic hurdles and the limited amount of funding have delayed the cleanup process and will prevent the tribes from completing as much work as they had hoped. Another worry was that the tribes originally planned to use local resources in the Covelo-Round Valley area, rather than hiring private contractors from outside the community. 

“When we started putting the grant together years ago, we talked about utilizing our own resources in our community,” Russ said. “Putting some of our own people to work, like truck drivers and people who work on excavators. We were trying to employ people and do some economic development in our own community.”  

Russ also explained that if the community is more involved with the cleanup process, it’s unlikely that the former dumpsites will get trashed again in the future.  

“When you are cleaning up areas, if the community is not involved, it’s likely for that place to get littered again,” he said. “But if you involve your community people, they will take ownership and police people from throwing out trash again. That’s why we wanted the community to be empowered and help with the cleanup.”  

The agreement between the RVIT and the county supervisors requires the project to be completed by Dec. 31, 2025. According to Russ, the start date for the program is uncertain. He said it depends on how quickly the bidding process with outside contractors is completed and when the tribes officially receive the grant funds. He estimated that the cleanup program will begin in spring.  

“We look at this project not just as a reservation thing, but a community project,” Russ said. “We are hoping to engage the whole community.”  

According to Russ, the cleanup efforts will primarily target two dumpsites on the reservation: one on Refuse Road, located just west of the Covelo Transfer Station, and another near the intersection of Taber Lane and Foothill Road, a short drive from the Round Valley Elementary School. 

The cleanup program is categorized into four tasks, each outlining what the county and the Round Valley Indian Tribes need to do to execute the program.  

The first requires the county to assist the RVIT by developing cleanup plans, hiring contractors for junk vehicle removal and reimbursing the tribe for training and resources. 

The second focuses on outreach from the RVIT and MCRCD and the creation of social media posts and physical signs to promote anti-littering messages on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.  

The third is also community-based, organizing cleanup events that the community can engage in. The RVIT, MCRCD and the county will set dates and locations, hire tribal staff and coordinate waste disposal.  

And the last is the final cleanup at the two locations. The RVIT, county and contractors will organize the junk vehicle removal and complete all contractual obligations. 

“The grant is to help blighted communities. It’s to provide community education, and to increase the capacity of the tribe to deal with some of these problems,” said 3^rd District Supervisor John Haschak, one of the project’s lead supporters. “Especially with hazardous waste treatments. The idea was to clean up, build awareness and tribal capacity.”   

Haschak complimented the RVIT for taking the initiative and beginning the cleanup of illegal waste on their own, successfully removing a lot of the waste even before receiving the community block grant.  

“The tribe has already gone ahead before getting the grant money,” Haschak said. “Kudos to them for stepping up and doing what needs to be done. But certainly, there’s a lot more to be done.”