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.
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