5/30/2013 9:12:59 PM
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) today gave Waste Management the go-ahead to build a 40-foot high wall on the Highway 18 side of the dump. The berm, which will be wide enough on top for a road, will allow an additional 1,000,000 tons of garbage to be dumped onto the existing landfill and keep the dump open two more years.
Expansion opponents including the Stop the Dump Coalition argued that neither the proposed berm nor the existing landfill were stable enough to withstand the magnitude 9.0 earthquake experts expect will strike Western Oregon. DEQ rejected these arguments, relying on EPA rules that DEQ says allow landfills to expand so long as new parts of the landfill meet current seismic standards.
Former Riverbend engineer Leonard Rydell and others with expertise in geology and engineering also pointed out that the assumptions used by Waste Management's engineers in designing the berm are all optimistic; if any one proves inaccurate, the entire analysis fails (see "GeoSyntec's House of Cards" in News below).
DEQ, however, found Waste Management's data persuasive and issued the permit. The approval gives Riverbend until July 31 to update its operations, site, and environmental monitoring plans to incorporate the berm.
Approximately 9,000 truckloads of dirt and rock must be imported to Riverbend to build the berm. Waste Management expects to take another 50,000 cubic yards of dirt from the river bank. The DEQ approval did not address the environmental impacts of berm construction other than to refer to other agencies that issue permits for quarries and for excavation.
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