Commissioners To Decide Landfill Fate March 12

WHAT:    Yamhill County Board of Commissioners Meeting
WHERE:  McMInnville Civic Hall, 200 NE 2nd Street (corner of Baker in McMinnville)
WHEN:   Thursday, March 12th, 10 AM (come early to get seating!)
WHY:       Because having the largest garbage dump west of the Cascades is not in Yamhill County's best interest

Can't come to the meeting?  Email your comments to Mike Brandt at the Planning Department:  brandtm@co.yamhill.or.us.

Many of you did this last December -- the record is full of citizens' comments. THANK YOU!  But it is important that you do it again.  You will be joining the City of McMinnville, which wrote last year to express their  concerns that dump expansion is not in the region's best interests. The City Council continues to stick their necks way out.  Please join them one last time and voice your concerns.

Do you farm near the dump?  Do garbage stink, litter and blowing garbage, and hordes of birds impact your farm? Could your ability to sell your farm be impacted by proximity to the dump?  What about getting a farm loan?  Does decreased property value because of proximity to the dump affect how much you can borrow?  All of these are important arguments.

Other important issues include:  •odors  •emissions of all kinds •litter •the visual effect of having a mountain of garbage sitting 50 feet from Highway 18 •out-of-county waste

In the last few months, the  percent of out-of-county garbage coming to the dump has grown while Yamhill County waste has decreased.  In the years to come this trend will probably continue.  More and more garbage from every place else.  This will be the only opportunity to impress upon the Commissioners that Yamhill County is not well-served being Metro's garbage pit.

Cultivating garbage instead of food is not a farming practice, but operating a winery is, along with growing grapes, grass, veggies, filberts; raising chickens, sheep, dogs, horses, goats, pheasants.  How will an ever-expanding garbage "farm" impact the livelihoods of the real farmers in the neighborhood?  

Waste Management and DEQ both admit that odor control has been ineffective.  The smell continues.  Should the County have to suffer from another 20 years of the stink?

Ground and surface water contamination is another real problem that the County and DEQ have ignored.  In the past year alone, tens of thousands of gallons of leachate poured out of the dump into local waterways and storm water runoff has been contaminated by zinc and E.coli.  Why should  farmers, all the way to the Willamette River and beyond, have to irrigate their land with water that flows by such an obvious source of water contamination?  Who will want to buy food that is irrigated with contaminated water?

Let the County know you are concerned about these issues.  Include your personal observations and experiences.  Tell our Commissioners what restrictions they should place on continued landfill operations.

And thank you for your efforts. We couldn't do this without all of you!

Sincerely, the Stop the Dump Coalition