We are all especially busy these days, but here's something any of us can do just sitting at our computer:
Send an email to the Yamhill County Planning Department saying you oppose expansion of Riverbend Landfill.
Many of you did this just one year ago. And your comments made a difference. In 2013, the Planning Commission voted not to approve Waste Management's rezoning application. But that was then, and this is now. After that rezoning ultimately passed the Board of Commissioners, Waste Management submitted the expansion plan under review today.
You can make a difference again with the Planning Commission. Let them know that you oppose expanding a giant mountain of trash onto high value farmland, next to a river, in a seismic hazard zone, on the gateway highway into Yamhill County and McMinnville. Tell them what it is about the dump that affects you most.
The way Waste Management has planned this expansion, the mountain of rotting garbage will move closer to McMinnville -- less than two miles away. Even Waste Management has said that a landfill should not be that close to a town! Moreover, this part of the expansion would be so close to Waste Management's property line that no screening may be possible. Imagine what that will look like every day.
The expansion will also bring the landfill a lot closer to Highway 18, where the garbage will cover high-value farmland and wetland and riparian areas. This new "wing" of the landfill will start just 35' from the highway's edge and rise in a steep 140-foot wall topped with a road part way up. This "wall" will run right down Highway 18 for half a mile!
Riverbend is already the biggest eyesore on the drive between Yamhill County and the coast. Even without this expansion, the dump will welcome visitors to the County for decades to come. The expansion will keep the landfill active at least 15 additional years with equipment, noise, odor, litter, dust, and traffic greeting travelers in our County. It will be the smell in the air that will bid people farewell as they leave our County. This is not how we want visitors to remember our beautiful valley.
We don't need this legacy. Oregon has hundreds of years of landfill capacity already. We don't need to expand any landfill in Oregon, let alone this one.
You can read about the expansion here.
The deadline for comments to the Planning Dept. is 5:00 PM on December 23rd. You can mail a comment to Planning Director Mike Brandt at 525 NE 4th Street, McMinnville, Oregon 97128, or email him: brandtm@co.yamhill.or.us. The Department has promised to post electronic comments online. To see other comments already submitted, go to the address above.
Many of you have sent in your comments already. Thank you! And thank you for all your help over the years.
Best wishes for the Holiday season and the coming New Year.
- the Stop the Dump Coalition
Friday, December 19, 2014
Friday, December 5, 2014
Planning Commission Hears Plenty of Complaints
The Yamhill County Planning Commission heard plenty of complaints from residents and business owners about the blight that is Riverbend Landfill at its hearing last night. The PC is considering the landfill's request to approve expansion of the dump onto adjacent farmland to the north and west.
The adequacy of the application and legal questions dominated the hearing. Although impacts of any expansion on farms in the immediate vicinity of the landfill are a key issue in the hearing, area farmers pointed out that the landfill's consultant interviewed only one farmer and misidentifed crops and other farm uses across the region.
Several local farmers pointed to specific changes they've had to make in their farming practices because the landfill attracts birds and vermin, which then move out into neighboring farm fields. In addition to eating or spoiling crops, birds and other vectors carry bacteria that can make food crops harmful to people.
Jennifer Redmond Noble pointed out that the farm-consumer relationship is growing more and more personal, with consumers eager to meet their farmer and visit their farm -- but not in the shadow of a smelly dump. Ramsey McPhillips pointed out how difficult and time-consuming it is to pick litter out of hay. Plastic bags are baled with the hay (not a welcome sight to a rancher feeding cows) or they clog the baler. The presence of the landfill puts this part of Yamhill County at a definite economic disadvantage.
A host of other issues were raised -- ownership of the various lots, susceptibility of the existing and expanded dump to rupturing in an earthquake, the recent zinc and leachate leaks, Riverbend's utter indifference to sorting waste to keep hazardous or recyclable material (or even "maggot-oozing dead goats") out of the dump.
You can still submit your comments on the expansion proposal! The Planning Department has set the schedule as follows:
5:00 PM Tuesday December 23 -- all parties may submit any additional comments up to this time, including new material
5:00 PM Wednesday December 31 -- all parties may submit rebuttals to any material previously submitted (but may not raise new issues or introduce new facts)
5:00 PM Thursday January 8 -- the applicant may submit a final written argument but no new evidence
7:00 PM Thursday January 15 -- the Planning Commission will take up the hearing again beginning with the Staff Recommendation. No more testimony will be taken. This meeting is expected to be at McMinnville Civic Hall.
For more information, visit http://www.co.yamhill.or.us/content/riverbend-landfill.
The adequacy of the application and legal questions dominated the hearing. Although impacts of any expansion on farms in the immediate vicinity of the landfill are a key issue in the hearing, area farmers pointed out that the landfill's consultant interviewed only one farmer and misidentifed crops and other farm uses across the region.
Several local farmers pointed to specific changes they've had to make in their farming practices because the landfill attracts birds and vermin, which then move out into neighboring farm fields. In addition to eating or spoiling crops, birds and other vectors carry bacteria that can make food crops harmful to people.
Jennifer Redmond Noble pointed out that the farm-consumer relationship is growing more and more personal, with consumers eager to meet their farmer and visit their farm -- but not in the shadow of a smelly dump. Ramsey McPhillips pointed out how difficult and time-consuming it is to pick litter out of hay. Plastic bags are baled with the hay (not a welcome sight to a rancher feeding cows) or they clog the baler. The presence of the landfill puts this part of Yamhill County at a definite economic disadvantage.
A host of other issues were raised -- ownership of the various lots, susceptibility of the existing and expanded dump to rupturing in an earthquake, the recent zinc and leachate leaks, Riverbend's utter indifference to sorting waste to keep hazardous or recyclable material (or even "maggot-oozing dead goats") out of the dump.
You can still submit your comments on the expansion proposal! The Planning Department has set the schedule as follows:
5:00 PM Tuesday December 23 -- all parties may submit any additional comments up to this time, including new material
5:00 PM Wednesday December 31 -- all parties may submit rebuttals to any material previously submitted (but may not raise new issues or introduce new facts)
5:00 PM Thursday January 8 -- the applicant may submit a final written argument but no new evidence
7:00 PM Thursday January 15 -- the Planning Commission will take up the hearing again beginning with the Staff Recommendation. No more testimony will be taken. This meeting is expected to be at McMinnville Civic Hall.
For more information, visit http://www.co.yamhill.or.us/content/riverbend-landfill.
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