This Thursday, March 12, the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners will hear Stop the Dump's appeal of the Planning Commission's approval of the Riverbend Landfill expansion.
The hearing is set for 10:00 AM at McMinnville Civic Hall, corner of Baker and 2nd in downtown McMinnville. Free parking is available behind the building on 1st Street.
The Board of Commissioners (BOC) will consider a slightly different expansion than the one submitted to the Planning Commission (PC). The landfill's owner (Texas-based Waste Management subsidiary RLC) originally asked for a 37-acre expansion, including 8 acres to the north toward McMinnville and 29 acres adjacent to Highway 18 near the landfill entrance. The PC rejected the 8-acre module, and RLC has agreed -- for the moment, at least -- to ditch that portion of the expansion.
RLC also agreed to push the expansion area back from the road -- a huge additional 15 feet -- so that the berm supporting the new garbage cells will begin a whopping 50 feet from the highway. Of course, the berm must climb more sharply to accommodate this "generous" setback, up first to a 30-foot high roadway for trucks hauling waste up to the dump and then up again another 100 feet to just shy of the current crest (286 feet above mean sea level, 135 feet above Highway 18).
RLC also promises to retain mature vegetation that already screens a portion of the dump from travelers on the road. Of course, many of the existing trees lie beyond the 50-foot setback, so those trees must go.
Magically, those trees show up again in visuals RLC submitted to the BOC, ostensibly to show what the dump will look like 5 years after expansion begins. In another amazing twist, none of the visuals show any actual garbage being dumped, so apparently the landfill will grow without any trucks, stink, noise, litter, birds, lights, dust, new roads dug into old waste cells, gas well drilling, dirt cover, etc. Nothing but blue skies, trees, and grass, in every direction. Heaven!
Come to the Board of Commissioners hearing on the 12th to explain your vision of Heaven. Or email your very real concerns about this expansion to Planning Director Mike Brandt at brandtm@co.yamhill.or.us. Do it today!
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