County in a Quandary

Waste Management has asked the County to "proceed with its application on remand" to expand Riverbend Landfill.  By letter dated December 3, 2015, Riverbend attorney Tommy Brooks informed County Planning Director Mike Brandt that no one had appealed the decision of the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) overturning the County's previous approval of the expansion and therefore the matter is back in the County's lap.

Although nearly three weeks have passed since Brooks submitted his request, the County has taken no action or apparently made any decision about how to act.  In rejecting the earlier approval, LUBA merely remanded the decision back to the County; the Board gave no instructions to the County about how to proceed.

LUBA did tell the County something about what not to do.  In rejecting the County's conclusion that Riverbend had complied with state law (ORS 215.296(1)) that requires a county to deny applications that significantly change or increase farming practices or costs, LUBA said:

1. We do not mean to suggest that the county ... must
2. deny [the] application based solely on a farmer’s testimony that the use will cause
   
3. a change in or increase the cost of accepted farm practices. The county must
   
4. evaluate all the competent evidence on that point, and might conclude,
   
5. notwithstanding such testimony, either that the proposed landfill expansion
   
6. does not significantly change or significantly increase the costs of accepted
   
7. farming practices, considering the whole record, or that the proposed use
   
8. complies with the significant change/cost test based on conditions of approval
   
9. that reduce impacts below the significance threshold. What the county cannot
   
10. do, however, is ... articulate a test under which
    
11. the county ... effectively shifts to farmer/opponents the burden
13. of demonstrating noncompliance with ORS 215.296(1). Remand is necessary
    
14. to correct that analytical error.  [Emphasis added.]
    

 LUBA also chided the County for relying on a wholly inadequate farm impacts analysis and suggested that a year-long study of birds might be in order to determine whether bird predation on nearby farmlands is the result of attraction to the area by landfill waste.

According to Planning Director Brandt, the County has not yet determined how to proceed.  Brandt said that the County is still awaiting "specific scheduling and procedure instructions from legal counsel. At this point [December 21] nothing has been scheduled and no date(s) have been discussed/considered for the remand."

LUBA Remands Expansion Decision

Yamhill County must take a second look at Waste Management's application to expand operations at Riverbend Landfill following a decision by the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA).  The decision, released today, returns ("remands") the case to the County Board of Commissioners (BOC) to "conduct a new evaluation of the evidence free of ... errors...."

The LUBA decision means the BOC will likely have to reopen the case for more evidence -- from Riverbend, which clearly failed to meet its burden the first time around.  "Burden" is the legal term for identifying the party that must provide the evidence supporting a decision.  In this case, LUBA said, Riverbend is that party.  But instead of requiring Riverbend to prove that an expanded landfill would not unduly impact area farms, the BOC looked to the farmers and other expansion opponents to prove that the landfill's impacts would be significant.

That, LUBA said, was wrong. 

The Board took exception to the County's treatment of farmers who testified about problems that occurred on their farms as a result of the landfill's presence.  According to LUBA, the County mistakenly required farmers to demonstrate that the landfill significantly increased their costs of doing business -- instead of requiring Riverbend to prove that the landfill did not have a significant impact on farm practices.

"Flaws" that LUBA identified in the BOC's reasoning included:

• shifting the burden of proof from the landfill to farmers;
• imposing a higher evidentiary standard on expansion opponents than on Riverbend (eg, farmers were required to submit "compelling" evidence while Riverbend's evidence merely had to be plausible);
• discounting farmers' testimony about farm impacts unless that testimony specifically quantified the harm the farmers experienced, while crediting similar but unquantified evidence from Riverbend;
• overreliance on a study submitted by Riverbend;
• and more.

Although the BOC might be able to fix some of these flaws by sifting through the evidence already presented in the case and making new findings, some issues would have to be resolved in opponents' favor.  For example, LUBA determined that there was insufficient evidence to conclude that birds attracted to the landfill did no more harm to area farms than migrating birds in general.  LUBA suggested that "a study of bird populations on and near the landfill, particularly compared to a study of bird populations on similar farm lands distant from the landfill, would seem to be both feasible and highly useful...."  Because bird populations and predation change over the course of the year, a year-long study might be required.

LUBA rejected several other arguments advanced by expansion opponents.  Either Riverbend or opponents could appeal the decision to the State Court of Appeals.  Any appeal must be filed within 21 days (ie, by December 1, 2015).

  

Let's Talk Trash

This Wednesday, November 4, at 7:00 PM in the evening, Portland Metro will be talking trash.

“What our trash says when we’re gone” is part of the ongoing “Let’s Talk Trash” series put on by Metro.  Co-host for Wednesday's segment is the Oregon Historical Society.  The free event, which will feature a panel of trash experts, will be held at the Oregon Historical Society, 1200 SW Park Avenue, in Portland.

This is a great opportunity to tell Metro not only what trash you don't want to leave behind, but where you don't want to leave it.

Is it environmentally sound to dump garbage on a river?  Of course not.  But Waste Management would have you and everyone who lives in Portland Metro believe that their trash is hauled away to a safe depository where it will never harm the water, the soil, the air, or the next generation.

It's hard to blame the people who live and work in the Metro area.  Most of them have no idea how much of their trash makes its way to Riverbend.  Video on the Metro Website really shows only Arlington as the final resting ground for most of Metro's trash.  Even the PR for Wednesday's event reads as if all Metro's garbage heads east (emphasis added):

"The Oregon Historical Society and Metro invite you to a discussion about roles of landfills in dealing with our region’s waste. Where were they located and what is there now? How did we wind up deciding to send garbage to Eastern Oregon? What role will landfills play in our future?"  No mention of Riverbend or the South Yamhill River anywhere.

Stop the Dump will be at the meeting, bringing hand-outs and information to share with people who don't yet know how badly Metro is green-washing them.  Join us!  Help educate the people who send their waste to us about the environmental harm they are doing.

To learn more, contact Ken Ray at 503-797-1508 or by email at ken.ray@oregonmetro.gov or visit http://www.oregonmetro.gov/news/lets-talk-trash-event-what-our-trash-says-when-were-gone and http://www.oregonmetro.gov/public-projects/solid-waste-roadmap/lets-talk-trash.

Army Corps Comments Due Soon

The Army Corps of Engineers wants to hear from you!

As previously reported (see Riverbend Pursues Wetlands Permit below), the Corps is reviewing a plan filed by Waste Management that would allow dump operators to build a new access road by rerouting the infamous No-Name stream into a 200-foot culvert.  

This creek, which is just south of Riverbend Landfill's Trash Mountain, was historically fish-bearing, providing migrating salmon with resting pools and spawning grounds.  In recent years, the stream has been degraded by culverts installed beneath Highway 18 and by Waste Management and its predecessors.  Waste Management claims the plans it submitted to the Army Corps will "enhance" the stream, but that's hard to imagine as the water plunges into a 200-foot-long culvert just feet after emerging from under Highway 18.

Moreover, the Landfill's plans completely ignore the impact that the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake will inevitably have on the landfill and the flood plain it sits in.  This quake is already overdue, yet Waste Management continues to promise that the landfill will not be affected -- despite evidence that the existing garbage dump was engineered, at best, for only a 7.25 magnitude quake.  The Big One will be magnitude 9.0 at least.

The comment period for the Army Corps has been extended to October 22 -- that's next Thursday.  Comments should be submitted to both the Army Corps and DEQ.  Contact kinsey.m.friesen@usace.army.mil and 401publiccomments@deq.state.or.us to tell them how you feel!

Professional surveyor Leonard Rydell, who knows more about the landfill than most of us, has drafted a model comment for you to use or to modify in your own words.  The important thing is to speak out!

Leonard's model comment:

Subject:  US Army Corps of Engineers No: NWP-2015-322
Oregon Department of State Lands No: 07-0733

Dear Army Corps of Engineers, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, and Oregon Department of State Lands:

We, the undersigned, are writing to request that the Army Corps of Engineers, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, and the Oregon Department of State Lands deny Riverbend Landfill’'s Permit Application No's NWP-2015-322 and DSL 07-733.

Riverbend Landfill is the WORST POSSIBLE PLACE in the Willamette Valley to construct and expand a landfill.  The site is located in and next to the bottom lands of the South Yamhill River and is subject to meandering river channels.  The landfill is situated on liquefiable soils in wetlands, a formerly-designated floodway, and an existing flood plain, in a wet climate that receives 41 inches of rainfall a year, within the Cascadia Subduction Zone that historically has been subject to earthquakes with magnitudes up to 9.09.  A CSZ earthquake is overdue, and the existing landfill is not engineered to withstand a subduction quake of anything close to this magnitude.  In addition, flood waters annually lap up to the existing and proposed landfill berms at the edge of the re-mapped floodway.

The expanded landfill will be 156 to 166 feet high with the toe of the support berms in the flood plain.  After an earthquake, Riverbend’'s leachate will have only a few feet to flow to end up in the waters of the South Yamhill River.  Already last year, before expansion, 32 million gallons of toxic leachate were hauled from Riverbend Landfill to treatment plants outside of Yamhill County.

This expansion risk is unacceptable to the health and safety of our environment and watershed.  Please deny the permit.

Thank you.

Riverbend Pursues Wetlands Permit

In order to expand the landfill, Riverbend must build a new road across the so-called "No Name Creek" on the dump's south side.  In order to build that road, the landfill must intrude into a wetland -- in fact, Riverbend needs to bury the creek in a 200' long culvert.

In order to encroach on a wetland, the dump needs a permit.

Actually, several permits:  the federal Army Corps of Engineers, the Oregon Department of State Lands, and the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) must all issue permits related to water.  The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency may also weigh in.

Sounds like an impossible course to run, but Waste Management, which owns Riverbend, thinks it has these permits in its pocket because the change they have to make to the wetland is, in their words, an enhancement, not an encroachment.

First up is the Army Corps permit, which you can read about here.  The Army Corps wants to know whether the work Waste Management plans to do in the wetland harms or benefits water habitat.  However, as you will notice as you take out your magnifying glass, it's impossible to determine what exactly Riverbend proposes to do because the maps are not legible.  The Stop the Dump Coalition noticed this, too, and requested readable copies.  Contact Stop the Dump to see the actual maps.

You might also notice that the comment deadline is stated as a couple of weeks ago.  This has been extended to October 22 and may be extended further yet -- because the Army Corps has yet to make the current "wetland delineation" public.  The delineation is a description of the existing wetland area.  Decisions about whether a project illegally encroaches on a wetland are based on the current delineation.  Waste Management prepared one a couple of years ago that was accepted by State Lands.  Because the entire permit application is based on the delineation, comments will make sense only if they can reference the delineation.

The real issue, of course, is not whether channeling a creek in a hugely long culvert "enhances" a wetland.  The issue is whether a landfill should be allowed to expand next to a creek, period -- especially one subject to rupture in the big earthquake we are all expecting.  Leachate is already leaking from the landfill and may contaminate the creek whether it is enhanced or encroached.

Write the Army Corps.  Tell them landfills don't belong in wetlands.  Our waste should go to dry Eastern Oregon, where the community actually wants it.

Send written comments to kinsey.m.friesen@usace.army.mil or via US mail to:

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Regulatory Branch
Ms. Kinsey Friesen
P.O. 2946
Portland, Oregon 97208-2946

Or you may send your comment to DEQ:

Email: 401publiccomments@deq.state.or.us (if using Microsoft Word, through version 7.0 only)
Mail:   Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Northwest Region 2020 S.W. 4th Avenue, Suite 400, Portland, Oregon 97201-4953, Attn: 401 Water Quality Certification Coordinator
Fax:   (503) 229-6957

LUBA to Hear Expansion Appeal on September 17

Next Thursday, September 19, the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals -- LUBA -- will hear arguments in the lawsuit filed by the Stop the Dump Coalition against the expansion of Riverbend Landfill.

Lawyers for Stop the Dump and other expansion opponents will try to convince LUBA's panel of judges that the procedure the County followed in approving the expansion was flawed and that the evidence the County relied on was legally inadequate.

One big bone of contention is the Farm Assessment submitted by Waste Management, which owns the dump.  Expansion opponents argue that the Assessment mischaracterized both the nature of farm activities surrounding the landfill and the extent to which the landfill's operation impacts those practices.

Another key point involves the unannounced visits that County Commissioners made to the landfill and other communications between Commissioners and Waste Management personnel.  Opponents were not privy to these visits and communications, and Stop the Dump's lawyers say that violates the law.

Besides the Stop the Dump Coalition, appellants include the Willamette Valley Wineries Association, McPhillips Farms, and Friends of Yamhill County.  The argument is open to the public.

IF YOU GO:

"Stop the Dump Coalition et al v. Yamhill County"

LUBA - Case #2015-036  

9/17/2015 at 1:30 PM

Land Board Room - 1st Floor

Department of State Lands Building

775 Summer Street NE (between Union and D Streets), Salem 97301

Park & Pay – Yellow Lot - bounded by Center, Summer, Marion, and Winter Streets.
Daily parking is available in the Capitol Mall area Yellow Lot at a self-serve park and pay machine.  $6/day.  Payment only by debit/credit VISA/MC (from machine in lot).

From Yellow Lot walk 1.5 blocks north on Summer Street to the State Lands Building.

Let them drink leachate!

by Leonard Rydell

Some statistics about the original landfill:

• 10% of Riverbend Landfill is in the Floodway as delineated by FEMA in 1982.
• 52.4% of Riverbend Landfill is in the 1982 Floodway and Floodplain (the "floodway" is where river water flows during a flood; the "floodplain" is the rest of the land area that floods when a river overflows).
• 29% of Riverbend landfill (Cells No. 1, 2, and 3) are not lined; portions of these cells are below ground water levels.

You will be happy to know that Yamhill County has "solved" these problems with the floodway and floodplain -- not by moving the landfill out of the water flow, but by redrawing the floodway lines.

Waste Management wants us to believe that Riverbend Landfill is a modern, state-of-the-art, lined landfill.  It is designed with a top liner, a bottom liner, and a secondary bottom liner.  The top liner prevents rain water from getting into the landfill.  The bottom liner collects the water that somehow penetrates the top liner, and the secondary bottom liner collects the leachate that makes it through both the top and bottom liners.  With these precautions, one would think that leachate would not represent a problem to the river or to ground water.

However, remember that 29% of the landfill bottom is not lined (Cells 1, 2, and 3).  Out of the million of gallons of rain that falls on each acre of Riverbend Landfill every year, about 20% is hauled out of Yamhill County as leachate (9 tanker loads a day in 2013).  Leachate generation has increased from 19,279,540 gallons in 2013 to 32,225,199 gallons in 2014, a 67% increase.  This is a whopping 37% of the rain that fell on the top liner of the landfill in 2014.  This leachate is collected below the top liner and between the two bottom liners and from ground water in Cells 1, 2, and 3.

The leachate is too toxic to treat at any biological sewer treatment plant in Yamhill County.  Instead the leachate must be hauled out of county by exhaust-spewing trucks -- and across bridges and roads that probably will not be standing or passable after the 9.0 Cascadia earthquake even if the leachate collection, pumping and storage systems remain intact.

We have evidence, however, that the leachate system will not continue operating in the event of an earthquake or even a bad storm.  In January/February 2014, heavy rains and snow overwhelmed the existing system.  The weather conditions made it impossible to haul leachate away from the landfill.  But the leachate kept flowing, and the on-site collection ponds came close to overflowing.  Waste Management's response was to add a couple of new storage tanks -- not curbing leachate production.

The South Yamhill River is heavily used for irrigation of food crops.  The City of Newberg gets its water downstream from gravel deposits next to the Willamette River, and Wilsonville gets its water from the Willamette River.  Do we want our neighbors, our food, and domesticated animals drinking leachate?

Express your opinion.  Contact Yamhill County Commissioners ("Mary Starrett" <starrettm@co.yamhill.or.us>

"Stan Primozich"<primozichs@co.yamhill.or.us> and "Allan Springer" <springera@co.yamhill.or.us>) and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (Dick Pedersen, Director pedersen.dick@deq.state.or.us. 

Demand accountability.  Tell them, “Enough is Enough,” and ask them to stop Riverbend Landfill expansion and start requiring actions to clean up the mess.

Why You Should Worry About the Big One

By Leonard Rydell

Riverbend Landfill is out of control, and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is determined to ensure that, at any cost, the dump continues to grow.  This is not right.  Let me explain.

I am a consulting Civil Engineer, Professional Land Surveyor, and Water Rights Examiner licensed in the State of Oregon, and this year am celebrating my 40th year of professional practice.  I have been following Riverbend Landfill since 1982 when I laid out the original survey coordinate system for Riverbend, revised the original construction plans, and -- for a brief while -- was the Engineer of Record until my concerns over Riverbend Landfill's failure to meet the landfill's design and specifications led me to resign.

It was obvious to me even then that Riverbend Landfill was going to become a major environmental hazard and that the DEQ would be no help.  I laid out Cells 1, 2 and 3.  When I measured ground water levels, I learned that ground water would move in and out of  garbage placed in those cells.  Despite rules that required 95% compaction, DEQ allowed garbage to be placed below ground water levels in those cells when DEQ's own tests showed compaction of cell bottoms to be no more than 60% during the first four years.  

The original design was for the landfill to rise to a height of 157 feet above sea level, ie, 7 feet above the surrounding farm fields and Highway 18.  After the original Yamhill County and DEQ approvals, I was asked to revise the plans to steepen the slopes so that the dump could rise 28 feet above the top of the farm fields on the uplands.

In the 1980's, earthquakes were not even discussed as part of an engineering design.  None of the original 8 cells of Riverbend Landfill have ever been studied to determine whether they will withstand a major earthquake (7.5 or larger), yet the DEQ continues to allow garbage to be added to the landfill, now piled up to 135 feet above surrounding farm fields (yes, that is a 108 foot increase from 1982).

Cells 4 and 5 have been studied to a 7.25 magnitude earthquake.  A 9.0 magnitude earthquake like the Big One we are expecting is 56.234 times stronger than a 7.25 earthquake but releases 421.696 times the energy.  It is not the same as paying $9.00 for lunch instead of $7.25.

But wait, there is more!  The July 1993 study for Cells 4 and 5 for a 7.25 earthquake was based on landfill slopes of 4 feet horizontal to one foot vertical, yet the DEQ is allowing a steeper 3.5 feet horizontal to one foot vertical slope and a maximum height 46 feet higher than that approved by the 1993 study.  Recently I asked the DEQ permit engineer when the increase in height was approved and what the design calculations were.  His reply was that a 3.5 foot horizontal to one foot vertical slope is "allowed by administrative rule."   To me, that is like adding four floors to a skyscraper without requiring engineering calculations because the additional height is allowed under the zoning code.

My concern about the earthquake stability of the landfill should also be your concern.  The 20 July 2015 New Yorker Magazine contains an excellent article about the Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake, the Northwest's "Big One."  See http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one.  As Kenneth Murphy, FEMA’s Region X (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska) Director says, "Our operating assumption is that everything west of Interstate 5 will be toast."

DOGAMI's Yumi Wang points out that we must also worry about soil liquefaction.  In her Hospital Report for Yamhill and Lincoln Counties, she says, "In addition to damage to bridges from earthquake shaking, damage would occur from tsunami flooding to road segments in low lying portions of Highway 101 especially near the Siletz River, from landslides especially toward the western portion of Highway 18 (ODOT mileposts 13 to 18); and from liquefaction especially between Sheridan and McMinnville."  In case you don't know, Riverbend Landfill is located on the river side of Highway 18 between Sheridan and McMinnville.

Look for my next article on water and the dump.

Moody Little Sister to Play Stop the Dump Fundraiser

What a deal!!

You can listen to great music and help close the dump at the same time!

Friends of Yamhill County member Joey Mahan has generously arranged for Moody Little Sister to appear in concert at 3rd Street Pizza on Friday, August 21.

Stopping the biggest garbage company in the world is not cheap, but these tickets are. Tickets are just $10 (minimum donation; more accepted with gratitude if you are so inspired) with proceeds to benefit the Stop the Dump Coalition.

STDC is appealing the County's decision to green-light dump expansion.  The Coalition is also providing expertise to the state Department of Environmental Quality in an effort to assist their review of Waste Management's expansion plans.  Every dime helps with our considerable expenses for attorneys, hydrologists, engineers, and other experts.


Speakers will update us on dump closure status at 6 PM, and the concert begins around 6:30.  As always, pizza and beverages are available for purchase.

Sample the band's music at https://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/artist_584140?eid=A584140_26037298_55432054_lnk1005&utm_content=1005&utm_medium=email&utm_source=fr_layout_13

To get tickets, e-mail Ilsa Perse at ilsap@earthlink.net.  Tell her how many tickets you'll need and then show up at the show!  But hurry -- seats are definitely limited and selling fast.

Safety Still a Big Concern at Landfill

by Leonard Rydell

As readers of this blog know, I have long been concerned about the stability of the existing landfill.  In the weeks before the County voted to approve the proposed landfill expansion, I submitted my concerns to the County once again.  County Counsel responded by entering my engineering stability concerns into the planning record for the land use hearing on the expansion.

The actual vote came after a delay to address ethics concerns regarding inappropriate ex-parte contact.  As the author of the seismic safety memo, I was singled out as one of those who had engaged in such contact.  When the vote was finally taken, each commissioner addressed the landfill.  One of the carefully crafted comments made was that the Commissioners could not consider my “seismic safety issues because they are not zoning issues!”

What a great way for the Commissioners to avoid addressing environmental and zoning problems!  Refuse to respond to safety complaints because a land use hearing is underway, and then refuse to consider those complaints because they do not address land use.  After being involved in land use planning for 42 years, I knew that this would happen, and indeed the County has followed this pattern for years.

If you remember, I asked for an apology for being publicly named as making “ex-parte contact” over the seismic issues.  I have not received one.

To date, Yamhill County has not addressed my seismic concerns nor the fact that Riverbend Landfill generates over 19 million gallons of leachate a year (2013) [about 9 tanker truck loads a day], yet it is still being touted as a “modern lined landfill”.

When the next big earthquake occurs, this leachate, plus several more million gallons of rain water infiltrating the pile of garbage due to damaged top liners, will need to be pumped and hauled somewhere out of Yamhill County for treatment across bridges that likely won't be standing.  If leachate can't get hauled off for treatment, it has two places to go:  1) the South Yamhill River to the Willamette to the Columbia to the ocean, or 2) into ground water.

Of course, the DEQ is not addressing this problem, and the landfill is already approved by the County.  There is no plan.

After the next earthquake, the landfill itself will probably not be standing.  Cells 1, 2, and 3 of the original landfill do not have bottom liners (liners are part of the structural design of the landfill), nor am I aware that the perimeter berm around Cells 1, 2, and 3 has ever been studied for earthquake stability.  None of that stopped Yamhill County from approving stacking tons more garbage on top of those cells.

Cells 4 and 5 have been lined and are designed for a 7.25 magnitude earthquake.  The design is based on side slopes of 4 horizontal to 1 vertical and a height of 95 feet above the perimeter berm elevation of 145 feet.  However, the current landfill slope is steeper (3.5 horizontal to 1 vertical) as well as 46 feet higher than the original design.  I have never seen documents verifying that the new design will withstand an earthquake of any magnitude, let alone the 9.0 quake we are expecting in Western Oregon.

I asked the DEQ permit engineer if I could see the documents that formed the basis of approval of these slope and height increases.  His response was that a 3.5 to 1 slope was allowed by Oregon Administrative Rules.  This is akin to approving a five-story addition to a 20-year-old skyscraper because 25 stories are allowed by the current zoning height limit.

I was told that if I wanted more information, I had to submit a public records request form and then go to DEQ's Portland office to look up the records myself”.  This stunned me.  Shouldn't the DEQ know the basis of its decision before increasing the height?  Apparently, they don't.

Fortunately, the County's approval has been appealed by the Stop the Dump Coalition and others.  Meanwhile, however, DEQ has begun to review Waste Management's application for environmental approval of the expansion.  To let DEQ know that seismic and water safety are important to citizens of Yamhill County, contact Greg Svelund at DEQ at svelund.greg@deq.state.or.us.  Greg is the official Riverbend point person.  Don't expect a response, however.

- by Susan Watkins

Here Come The Judge!

The Stop the Dump Coalition today filed a Notice of Intent to Appeal Yamhill County's approval of Riverbend Landfill's expansion.  The NITA (as the Notice is called) was filed with LUBA, the state Land Use Board of Appeals.

By law a copy of the NITA must be mailed to everyone who testified or submitted written testimony in the hearings the County held on the landfill's application.  The County must now prepare a "record" of those proceedings, which attorneys and LUBA judges can refer to in arguing the case.  Once the record is complete, Stop the Dump will have 21 days to file its opening brief.

Stop the Dump was joined in the NITA by the Willamette Valley Wineries Association and McPhillips Farms, Inc.


Even before the NITA was filed, however, Waste Management presented its expansion application to the state Department of Environmental Quality, DEQ.  At 824 pages, the application will make good bedtime reading for a good many bedtimes.

Fortunately, DEQ estimates that it will take several months to complete its own review of the application.  In the meantime, Stop the Dump and its allies will be busy parsing the massive document and securing experts to review it, as well.  The work ahead will be time-intensive and expensive.

You can contribute to this effort.  If you have environmental expertise and are willing to review and comment on the application, contact Susan Watkins here to receive a copy of the application (on CD-rom).

If you have an interest in Stopping this Expansion, please contribute!  Many of you have already donated in response to the fund-raising letter Stop the Dump recently sent out.  THANK YOU so much.  We have been amazed at your generosity.

If you did not get a fund raising letter, but would like to donate (gentle hint) , please take advantage of the easy-to-use donate button at the top of this page!

To all of you, thank you so much for the continued support.  We couldn't do any of this without you.

DEQ Names Contact for Riverbend Questions

Tired of fielding questions about Riverbend Landfill from people concerned about their health, their environment, and the health of their community, the state Department of Environmental Quality has decided to funnel all inquiries about the landfill to -- Bend.

The individual who will now serve as DEQ's "point man" for Yamhill County's huge regional dump is Greg Svelund, whose office is in the Central Oregon community.  Svelund can be reached by email at svelund.greg@deq.state.or.us or by phone at 541-633-2008.

Lissa Druback, DEQ Solid Waste Manager and supervisor of Bob Schwarz, the permit writer for Riverbend, explained Svelund's appointment in an email to a Stop the Dump board member:

"Because we expect to receive many inquiries about this permit modification that cover multiple programs at DEQ, we have identified a single point of contact for questions about Riverbend from here on out.  That person is Greg Svelund in our Bend office....  We will answer the questions received as our workload allows.  If you have any additional questions about the public comment process, please contact Greg."

The permit modification Druback refers to is the 29-acre expansion recently approved by Yamhill County.  Although Waste Management has already submitted an application to DEQ for its approval, Yamhill County citizens have not had access to that application because DEQ is moving some offices, putting all public records requests on hold for several weeks.  Stop the Dump is working with DEQ to release the application anyway and hopes to have the documents available for review soon.

Riverbend Files for DEQ Permit

Riverbend Landfill has wasted no time moving forward.  The company, which received its Yamhill County expansion permit April 23, has already asked the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for an environmental permit to allow it to expand.

The County permit depends on issuance of a DEQ permit and also depends on DEQ to enforce many of the most important provisions the County wants to see in the expanded dump, including earthquake safety and water quality protection.

But DEQ has proven in the past that it is loathe to enforce rules against the landfill.  Permits requiring preservation of air and water quality are loosely drafted, allowing Riverbend to police itself as well as to decide how to comply in many cases.  When an apparent violation occurs, DEQ allows the landfill to redraw the rules.

This Thursday evening you can see for yourself how lax DEQ oversight of the dump actually is.  DEQ will be holding a hearing on the landfill's Air Quality permit.  Anyone can review the permit and offer comments to make it more stringent and reasonable.  In fact, DEQ needs to hear from you!

Hearing details

When:    Informational session at 6 p.m. Hearing at 7p.m., Thursday, April 30
Where:   McMinnville Public Library Carnegie Room, 225 NW Adams St. McMinnville, OR 97128

Send written comments by mail, fax or email to (Comments due 5 p.m., Friday, May 8):

Patty Hamman, Permit Coordinator DEQ Western Region, Salem Office, 4026 Fairview Industrial Drive, Salem, OR 97302
Fax:    (503) 378-4196 Email:    hamman.patricia@deq.state.or.us

Get a copy of the hearing notice, which explains what the permit is supposed to cover, here.

This Just In!

At 7:20 PM tonight (Monday, April 20) Waste Management sent out this meeting notice:


Bring questions to Riverbend air permit meetings April 21 and 30:
Riverbend's Title V air permit will be the topic of two public meetings in April:

• Riverbend Community Meeting - Tuesday, April 21, 6 pm free pizza, 7 pm program, McMinnville Senior Center. This meeting is a regulatory requirement. There will be time for questions and input.

• DEQ Public Hearing - Thursday, April 30, 6 pm information session, 7 pm public hearing, McMinnville Public Library. The DEQ has conducted a preliminary review of our air permit renewal application. This meeting is part of the public comment process. For information, call 503.378.8240.

Nice of them to give the community notice of a meeting required by their permit!  But don't feel bad if this notice didn't come to you personally.  Many people on the air quality meeting community mailing list didn't receive it, either.  Think WM really wants to hear from you?

One Meeting Changed, Another Coming Up

Landfill Expansion

The Board of Commissioners were supposed to sign off on findings to support their 2-1 decision favoring landfill expansion at the Board's regular meeting Thursday, April 16, but the findings aren't ready (ie, Waste Management hasn't finished writing them).  The Commissioners will instead consider the proposed findings at their April 23rd meeting.

Once the Commissioners approve the findings, they can adopt an ordinance approving expansion.  In the past, such ordinances have always been adopted as "emergency" measures, meaning citizens can't seek a voter referendum to repeal the ordinance.

Voters' only option when a bad emergency ordinance is adopted is to appeal.  Because the landfill measure is a land use issue, any appeal would be to the state Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA).  Notice of intent to appeal to LUBA must be filed within 21 days after the ordinance becomes effective (May 14, if an immediately-effective emergency ordinance is approved on April 23). 

Landfill Air Quality Permit Renewal

In the meantime, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has scheduled a hearing on Waste Management's request to renew the landfill's Air Quality permit.  That hearing will be held Thursday, April 30, in the Carnegie Room at the McMinnville Public Library, 225 NW Adams Street in McMinnville.  The hearing begins with an informational session at 6:00 PM followed by the hearing itself at 7:00 PM.


You do not have to attend the hearing in order to comment on the proposed permit. DEQ will accept comments by email, mail, or fax as well as testimony at the hearing.  The proposed permit itself can be found at http://www.oregon.gov/deq/docs/043015riverbend.pdf. 

To compare with the existing permit, go to http://www.deq.state.or.us/aq/permit/alphalist.htm#qr and scroll down to Riverbend Landfill.  Or contact Patty Hamman of DEQ at the address below for information.

 

Send written comments by mail, fax, or email to:

 

Patty Hamman, Permit Coordinator
DEQ Western Region, Salem Office
4026 Fairview Industrial Drive
Salem, OR 97302
Fax:        (503)378-4196
Email:    hamman.patricia@deq.state.or.us

To consider comments, DEQ must receive them by 5:00 PM, Friday, May 8, 2015.

Commissioners To Finalize Expansion Ordinance April 16

The Yamhill County Board of Commissioners (BOC) will meet Thursday, April 16, to adopt findings in support of its decision to allow Riverbend Landfill to expand.

Despite misgivings about the landfill's impacts on neighborhood farming activities, the BOC voted 2-1 last week to approve an expansion that will keep the landfill open another dozen or so years.  Without the approval, the dump would reach capacity and close sometime in 2017.

Commissioner Allen Springer, whose close ties to Waste Management caused many to question his impartiality, cast the lone vote against expansion.  (Waste Management operates the dump through wholly-owned subsidiary Riverbend Landfill Co.)  Springer offered no explanation or support for his vote.

The Stop the Dump Coalition and other County organizations are already discussing a possible appeal.  Over the years, hundreds of County residents and businesses have called for the County to let the dump close.  They cite Waste Management's importation of millions of tons of waste from outside the County as well as the dump's close proximity to the South Yamhill River and acres of fertile farmland as strong reasons to see the landfill close.

Though some have expressed concern over a possible rise in garbage rates if the local landfill closes, expansion opponents point out that (1) the County has never put garbage hauling out to bid and so there is no way to know what the real cost should be, and (2) garbage rates have gone up anyway even though the dump is still open.  A survey of neighboring counties showed that even some without local garbage dumps offer lower rates to customers.

Ex parte contact rules prohibit people, for or against expansion, from contacting the Commissioners before the findings are adopted and the ordinance approving expansion is approved.  To see the BOC in action once again, attend the meeting, Thursday, April 16, 2015, at 10:00 AM in room 32 of the County Courthouse (in the basement) on 5th Street between Evans and Ford in McMinnville.

Commissioners Approve Expansion 2-1

Friends,

Yesterday the Yamhill County Commissioners voted to approve the expansion of the dump.  The vote was 2-1, but the big surprise was that the no vote came from Allen Springer, who gave no reason for his vote, and did it in such a way that many didn't realize he had actually voted in opposition.  Let's hope news organizations press him for his reasons to vote no....

Mike Brandt made clear in his staff report that ORS 215.296 was a reason to deny the application.  This ORS prohibits non-farm practices (like a dump) on farm land if there is a negative impact on farmers. Commissioner Starrett seemed to understand that farmers were being seriously impacted. Then she argued against herself that the impacts were not a legal reason to vote no; she appeared not to realize that the legal threshold for ORS 215.296 had certainly been met and that was all the legal reason she needed.  As many of you know, she is very concerned about the impacts on farmers' lives from a bike trail. Those impacts pale in comparison to the impacts of 15 million tons (and growing) of putrescible waste bordering peoples' farms.  Commissioner Primozich gave no reason for his vote.

In addition to ORS 215.296, Mike Brandt told the commissioners that OAR 660 was also a legal reason to deny the application. They appeared not to want to wander into more complex laws, so avoided all mention of it.   We were very impressed by the Planning Department's thorough report.  We are, of course, disappointed that two of the commissioners did not pay attention to the legal reasons to deny the application.

The Commissioners heaped blame on previous commissioners, thereby justifying continuing the same bad policies.Commissioner Starrett acknowledged that the dump is in a "lousy location" but  that was not their doing. Voting to expand in that same lousy location makes no sense.

There are hundreds of pages of expert testimony that provide strong legal arguments to deny Waste Management's  application.  All that is needed is the political will to take the county in a new direction.  We did not see that political will today.

Thank you for the huge turnout.  We'll keep you posted on further plans.

- Stop the Dump Coalition

Commissioners To Try Again

The Yamhill County Board of Commissioners will try again tomorrow, Thursday, April 2, to reach a decision on whether to allow Riverbend Landfill to expand.

A decision was originally expected a week ago, but questions about the propriety of ex parte contacts with individual Commissioners sidetracked that process.  Those questions focused on Chair Allen Springer's extensive contacts with Waste Management employees on matters tangential to the landfill and Commissioner Stan Primozich's conversation with an appraisor whose opinions on the devaluing impact of the landfill on the price of adjacent lands had already been entered into the record.

Whether the Commissioners' earlier unnoticed visits to the landfill itself (singly, but with some participation by WM personnel) violated County rules has also been raised.

In addition, the News-Register newspaper has been trying to obtain copies of correspondence between Commissioners and County Counsel about ex parte contact law.  The paper wants to learn whether that legal advice has been consistent and whether Commissioners have been following it.

Last week the Board decided to give all parties an opportunity to "rebut" "charges" of improper contact.  Expansion opponents have questioned whether that is the proper way to cure problems they believe are interwoven into the entire expansion decision process.

The Board hearing is scheduled for 10:00 AM in Room 32, basement of the Courthouse, 5th and Evans in McMinnville.  Last week, Chair Springer felt it necessary to ask the Sheriff's office to deploy deputies to monitor the meeting room.  Perhaps he fears an ex parte outbreak.

Last Chance to Weigh in on Riverbend

The Board of Commissioners heard impassioned pleas from both sides last Thursday during the hearing on the proposed Riverbend Landfill expansion.  The 29-acre expansion would bring the landfill right up to the edge of Highway 18 (only 50 feet from road's edge) and keep the landfill open another decade.

Several Riverbend contractors and employees asked the BOC to keep the landfill operating.  A host of expansion opponents cited impacts to neighboring farms, ground and river water, air quality, and tourist businesses as reasons to let the landfill close.

The BOC is following a procedure that requires them to deny Riverbend's expansion application if the expansion would require significant changes in farming practices or increases in costs.  The Commissioners had been asked to follow a different procedure, applicable to enlargement of nonconforming uses, which would have required the County to deny expansion if the proposal would add any negative impacts.  The BOC declined to use that procedure.

The hearing record is being held open for additional comment only until 5:00 PM this coming Tuesday evening, March 17.  After that, anyone may rebut new comments up until 5:00 PM Friday, March 20.  Then the record is closed.

Comments should be sent to Planning Director Mike Brandt at brandtm@co.yamhill.or.us or mailed to the Planning Department at 525 NE 4th Street, McMinnville, Oregon 97128.

The BOC will decide whether Riverbend can expand March 26 at 10:00 AM in Room 32 in the basement of the County Courthouse, 535 NE 5th Street in McMinnville.