Hunger Strike Update

by Susan Watkins

4/2/2013 9:31:32 PM

Note:  Ramsey posted this video on the 9th.

Ramsey McPhillips, heir to and owner of the historic 150-year-old McPhillips Farm adjacent to Riverbend Landfill, has had enough.  He has attended countless meetings, sent hundreds of letters and emails, and filed lawsuits, all in a so-far vain attempt to persuade authorities to let Riverbend Landfill close when it reaches its current engineered capacity in 2014.  Fed up with the lack of serious attention state and county authorities are paying to the deleterious effects the dump is having on the livability of his farm, he has decided to strike back.

In this case, the "strike" is a hunger strike.

Beginning today, April 3, McPhillips has vowed to go without solid food until proposed expansions of the landfill are stopped.  "I don't make this decision lightly," McPhillips said in a film announcing the strike.  But after decades of fighting Waste Management, the dump's out-of-state owner, McPhillips had to take a stand, even if the "stand" was himself.

"The idea of importing millions of tons of garbage to put on this beautiful, salmon-bearing river tributary, on the best soil in the state" is something he says he can no longer tolerate.  McPhillips Farm straddles the South Yamhill River.  An elegant 60-year-old house, the newer of two homes on the property, sits on a bluff that juts into the river.  "It's the only site like this on the river," McPhillips says, "and we are being driven out by the noise, smell, vermin, and pollution from next door."

McPhillips has asked people who sympathize with his efforts to contribute to the Stop the Dump Coalition, which has taken legal action, hired experts, and held educational events to inform the public about the hazards of leaving unmonitored waste on a river that provides habitat to threatened fish, drinking water to thousands of downstream residents, and irrigation water for farms.  He also urges people opposed to expansion to call the Oregon Department of Environment Quality (DEQ) at 503-229-5263 by Friday, April 5 at 5:00 PM.  That is the deadline for commenting on a proposed 1,000,000 ton expansion of the landfill.

Contributions to the Stop the Dump Coalition can be made via Paypal on this website or can be sent to STDC at PO Box 1744, McMinnville, OR 97128.

A lawsuit McPhillips and other landfill neighbors filed in 2012 is still in the courts.  In that case, McPhillips charged that Yamhill County had issued a "land use compatibility statement" (LUCS) without holding a public hearing or determining whether the current landfill meets County land use rules and landfill approval conditions.  The LUCS allows the DEQ to authorize the expansion cited above.  The Court of Appeal is expected to rule on McPhillips' suit by May 7.

To learn more about McPhillips' decision to resort to a hunger strike, visit the Stop Riverbend Landfill Facebook page here.  He plans to update his story daily.