Last fall, the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) rejected Yamhill County's attempt to approve dump expansion, sending the case back to the County.
LUBA told the County to make Waste Management (WM) prove that expanding Riverbend Landfill would not have significant impacts on local farming practices or significantly increase farming costs. In approving the expansion last spring, the County had put the burden on farmers to prove the expansion would have such impacts. The County, LUBA said, had gotten it backward.
What's more, LUBA said, the farm analysis Waste Management relied on was flawed.
For example, LUBA flat-out rejected a key piece of WM's evidence -- a "longitudinal" study showing that farming has increased in the area around the dump -- calling the study "of questionable relevance." More "highly useful," said LUBA, would be a comparison of bird populations near the landfill with those on similar farms farther away.
Now the County is finally ready to hold a new hearing, but there's no bird study in sight. Instead, the Board of Commissioners (BOC) wants to hear new arguments based on evidence already in the record (including whether the longitudinal study can somehow be resurrected). The BOC is calling for new evidence only about farm activities on two parcels near the dump and about methods for controlling birds.
It's unclear how the latter will help the BOC reach a legally-sound decision, given that LUBA spent several pages bemoaning the lack of evidence about which birds require controlling and where. LUBA was concerned that the County
required farmers to identify the number of birds attracted by the
landfill that then moved to their fields to damage crops. LUBA
specifically noted that the County had not asked WM to "quantify" the
birds that visit the landfill. Nothing in the questions the BOC is now asking will rectify that oversight.
Stop the Dump Coalition calls the new "hearing" "an Alice-in-Wonderland situation" that is "quite frankly mysterious." Mysterious or not, written testimony and evidence can be submitted, so long as it relates to the questions posed by the BOC.
Mail or email County Planner Ken Friday (for receipt by 5:00 PM Wednesday, February 3, 2016):
Yamhill County Planning Dept, 525 NE 4th St, McMinnville, OR 97128
Fridayk@co.yamhill.or.us
Or bring your written material to the hearing:
Thursday, February 4, 2016, at 10:00 AM
Yamhill County Courthouse Room 32, 535 Fifth Street, McMinnville.
According to County land use counsel Todd Sadlo, a one-week rebuttal period will then be open for comments on material submitted by February 4.
