The city campaigning to become "America's Greenest" each night sends a caravan of diesel smoke-spewing garbage trucks beyond Reno - a trash haul longer than that of any other major California city.

Nearly two dozen rigs make the 282-mile round-trip every night, shipping Sacramento's garbage over Donner Pass to the massive Lockwood Landfill in the western Nevada desert.

The trucks get five to seven miles per gallon and each night belch as much pollution into the air as 1,200 ordinary vehicles, according to figures compiled for The Bee by the state Air Resources Board. The California Highway Patrol has cited the rigs at least 108 times since 2001, mostly for speeding and weight violations.

"It's a little ridiculous, isn't it?" said Scott Smithline, director of legal and regulatory affairs at Californians Against Waste. "If Sacramento wants to be known as this green city, you've got to imagine there's a better idea than sending all these diesel trucks to Reno."

A shorter trip may be in the works.

After a decade of hauling over the hill, city officials are entertaining an offer to bring city trash to the county-operated Kiefer Landfill in Sloughhouse, 19 miles from downtown. City officials are negotiating with the county to see if Kiefer can offer cheaper rates.

"We don't want to see waste going any farther than it needs to," said Edison Hicks, Sacramento's director of utilities. "But the town gets in an uproar if they are being charged too much for trash collection."

Hicks said fuel prices and greenhouse gases weren't overriding concerns in 1998 when the city started contracting with a private trucking firm, BLT Enterprises, to haul its garbage. Despite the distance, the Nevada landfill, facing fewer environmental regulations than California landfills, offered the best deal.

Ten years later, diesel prices have leaped to around $3.50 a gallon. And Sacramento has begun touting itself as a leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, embracing everything from energy-efficient offices to hybrid vehicles and solar panels.

Keith Roberts, coordinator of the "Greenest City" campaign, said Sacramento's efforts so far have focused on carbon emissions produced directly by the city, not those emitted by contractors. So the pollution from the garbage haulers isn't included in the city's greenhouse gas inventory - 63,000 metric tons in 2005.

"I don't like seeing our municipal waste hauled to Nevada," Roberts said. "But we've got to take it one step at time."

Kiefer Landfill would make a good home for Sacramento's trash, recyclables and green waste, said Patrick Quinn of the county's waste department. He said the landfill on Grant Line Road has enough room to last another 50 years. The county also is offering the use of its Roseville Road transfer station as an alternative to the city and BLT trucking building their own transfer facility - at a cost of $8 million to $15 million - to serve the growing north area.

Sacramento dumped at Kiefer in the mid-1990s, after the midtown landfill at 28th and B streets filled up. The city left for Lockwood for two chief reasons, Hicks said: lower rates and liability. The county wouldn't sufficiently insure the city in the event of an environmental mishap.

Quinn said the county's new proposal takes care of that.

"We gave them a darn good bid," said Quinn, quoting a rate of $36.95 a ton for trash, slightly less than BLT's going price of $38.50 a ton. "It's an existing facility, we're locally operated. Plus, it's reasonably close."

Hicks said the city still has contractual obligations to BLT and it would be unfair to comment on how the county's offer is being received. A decision likely will be made early next year. Meanwhile, city officials are reviewing potential sites for the joint city-BLT transfer station. They also are studying the feasibility of building a waste-to-energy plant.

Sacramento City Councilwoman Lauren Hammond views exporting garbage as a good thing for Sacramento, so long as the price is right.

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