DEQ Approves Wall -- Hearing Set for March 28

by Susan Watkins

Despite pleas from neighbors and respected engineers, DEQ has decided to approve the 40-foot high wall Waste Managment wants to build on the Highway 18 side of the dump, without requiring the company to engineer the wall to withstand a magnitude 9.0 earthquake.

As those of you who have followed this story (see articles below) well know, the rest of the state of Oregon has agreed to start preparing for the enormous earthquake we know will hit our coast.  History teaches us that a subduction earthquake of magnitude 9.0 will strike off the Oregon coast sometime in the next 200 years.  This quake will be the US equivalent of the huge quake that devastated Japan two years ago.  Although the expected 60-foot-high tsunami will not inundate the Willamette Valley, the shaking along Highway 18 could last as long as 6 minutes.

The Stop the Dump Coalition has worked hard to convince DEQ to require Waste Management to engineer its proposed wall to the M9.0 standard, which will have an impact 15 times greater than an 8.5 quake.  We successfully persuaded the Environmental Quality Commission, which runs DEQ, to reach out to the state's earthquake experts, DOGAMI (Department of Geology and Minerals Industries), which is leading the effort to reinforce critical infrastructure to the 9.0 standard.

Despite this charge, DEQ asked DOGAMI only whether the 8.5 standard championed by Waste Management was sufficient under the law.  Unfortunately for the safety of landfill neighbors, Highway 18 travelers, and the South Yamhill River, DOGAMI agreed that 8.5 is the minimum standard the law allows.  Armed with this news, DEQ immediately approved the wall.

The approval is only tentative, however.  Before DEQ can finalize the permit, a hearing must be held and public comment considered.  DEQ recently withdrew a permit after a public hearing like the one planned for the wall, so it's important that people show up and testify.

The hearing will be held March 28 at 7:00 PM at the McMinnville Senior Center at 2250 NE McDaniel Lane.  The hearing will be preceded by an hour of Q&A with DEQ staff.  To learn more and to read DEQ's report, click here.

Legislator Proposes Protections for Farmland

by Susan Watkins

 Representative Ben Unger (D-Washington County) has proposed legislation that would protect prime farmland from a host of non-farm-related activities.  Ben comes from a long line of farmers.  He knows that most of the targeted activities, which are currently allowed on EFU lands by state statute or rule, remove the land from farming forever.

The activities that would be disallowed include (among others) mining, asphalt mix plants, cement plants, energy exploration, and landfills!

 

The bill (HB 3040) faces an uncertain future.  To learn more, contact Ben atrep.benunger@state.or.us, and also contact your representatives to ask them to sign onto the bill as co-sponsors.  As Ben points out, we aren't banning these activities from Oregon, just moving them off our world class farmland.

Interesting Times

by Leonard Rydell

2/21/2013 7:12:46 PM

Recently, the Oregon DEQ met with DOGAMI to discuss whether or not an 8.5 or 9.0 magnitude Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake should be used in designing the proposed perimeter wall Waste Management wants to build at Riverbend Landfill.

The issue boils down to whether or not engineers should follow the four-year-old earthquake standard of 8.5 or the current practice of 9.0 in Oregon as suggested by the Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI).

Since Riverbend is located on a floodway, and since engineers have the responsibility "to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public," you would expect this to be a no brainer.  Waste Management thinks otherwise and has found consultants from California to agree.  So far, the DEQ has agreed with Waste Management, but to the Department's credit (and community pressure), they still haven't made a final decision.  

On another front, oral arguments were recently heard in the Court of Appeals where Waste Management Attorneys tried to convince the justices that the flood control berm approved by the County in 1980 really also approved a 40 foot high wall 15 feet into a 20 foot setback around the landfill.

Waste Management's attorney argued that:

1.      The wall on the uplands side of the landfill serves the same purpose as the flood plain berm in the lowlands (which separates waste from the South Yamhill River floodway).
2.      Yamhill County's 1980 approval of the flood plain berm included the proposed upland wall because both define "the footprint" of the landfill.
3.      The original representations for approval that only 20 acres would be disturbed at one time for landfill purposes and that the land would be returned to farm use do not apply even though the original approval required an "exception" to state land use laws that incorporated the 20-acre limitation.
4.      Yamhill County can approve the proposed wall without public review.
5.      Yamhill County was correct in issuing a Land Use Compatibility Statement (LUCS) based on 1-4 above, and public involvement was not necessary.

While the problems with these arguments have been pointed out to the DEQ, their position is that as long as Yamhill County signs a LUCS, they will approve whatever Waste Management wants.

All of this is a political problem at this point, and if this bothers you, perhaps you will want to contact Yamhill County Commissioners.  Remember, your opinion counts.

DEQ Still Mulling 9.0

by Susan Watkins

The Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Committee has issued its draft report calling on strengthening Oregon's infrastructure to withstand a magnitude 9.0 Cascadia earthquake.  Yamhill County is set to run an earthquake preparedness trial with FEMA funding based on the 9.0 event.  So why is DEQ stuck at 8.5?

As you may recall, Waste Management asked DEQ's permission to build a 40-foot high barrier on the Highway 18 side of the dump.  This wall will allow the landfill to collect another 1,000,000 tons of garbage and stay open an additional two years, through 2016.  The Stop the Dump Coalition and others have called on DEQ to use the 9.0 standard in evaluating the proposed wall, but DEQ has so far refused.

It's not that people don't know the coming subduction zone quake will be at least that big--as big as the Tohoku quake that hit Japan two years ago.  The rest of Oregon's government is intently focused on preparing for an earthquake that large. But Waste Management has modeled its wall based on an 8.5 event and doesn't want to build it stronger.

DEQ has met with DOGAMI, the state's Department of Geology and Mineral Industries--our local earthquake experts--and still hesitates to move up to 9.0.  Now the EPA has said it will invite DEQ and DOGAMI to meet with EPA representatives to discuss the matter.  And several elected officials have begun to take an interest in the issue.

Will we get a safe landfill?  Probably not -- the one we have leaks, and no one is investigating the soils under the existing garbage heap.  But if Waste Management can persuade DEQ to stand tough and insist on using 8.5 for the wall, then when the company returns with plans for its proposed 60-acre expansion, it can point to precedent to use 8.5 to assess that expansion, too.

Then we will really be in trouble.