Important Meetings Coming Up!

Air Quality Meeting

6:00 - 8:00 PM
Tuesday, April 29 at the McMinnville Senior Center at 2250 NE McDaniel Lane.

This is the public meeting that the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) requires Waste Management to hold twice yearly to address issues with air emissions and odor.  The public is encouraged to ask questions and to report problems.

Attending this year's meeting will be Gary Andes and Claudia Davis, who monitor Riverbend's compliance with its Title V (air quality) permit, and Bob Schwarz, who monitors the landfill's operations.  Bryan Smith will be on hand to discuss DEQ's new odor reporting form.

In addition to odor and VOCs (volatile organic compounds) that leak into the air from Riverbend, dust on the roadways has been a big concern lately.  Since Waste Management began to reconfigure the dump to make room for the mechanically stabilized earthen berm (the wall that will allow the landfill to accept 2,000,000 additional tons of garbage over the next three years), Highway 18 has been muddier than usual.  Erosion into the creeks that flank the landfill is also a concern.

Candidates' Night

7:00 - 9:00 PM
Wednesday, April 30 at the McMinnville Senior Center at 2250 NE McDaniel Lane.


Yamhill County's resource organizations -- the Farm Bureau, Small Woodlands Association, the Willamette Valley Wineries Association, and Friends of Yamhill County -- host their traditional election year Candidates' night.  Most candidates for County Commissioner will be present to answer audience questions.

One candidate who may not be attending is Stan Primozich, who testified in favor of landfill rezoning at the Planning Commission hearing late last year.  That public advocacy of dump expansion may mean Primozich would have to recuse himself from any hearings involving expansion, should he be elected.