Waste Management might have had a presentation to make at tonight's Air Quality meeting. If so, they didn't get the chance.
The semi-annual Air Quality meetings are mandated by the state as part of Riverbend Landfill's "Title V" permit. That's the license Waste Management receives from the state to pollute our air.
Because the McMinnville area has clean air, the landfill is allowed to dump a lot of chemicals into it. And some of those chemicals smell. Horribly.
After opening the meeting, Riverbend personnel attempted to give a rundown on the many new gas wells that have been or will be sunk in Trash Mountain this year. These wells siphon off gas to burn in Riverbend's on-site landfill-gas-to-energy facility (to produce electricity). Excess gas is flared off. Deep wells mostly capture gas from old garbage deposits; when new deep wells are sunk, old garbage is exposed, bringing up fresh odor. Shallow, or pin, wells are sunk mostly into fresh garbage and are not supposed to be associated with increased smell.
This winter, however, Riverbend has been smellier than usual, and Waste Management received an earful about the "nosefulls" that neighbors and travelers receive from the dump daily.
Neighbors and travelers who drive past the dump told DEQ, the state agency responsible for monitoring air quality at Riverbend, that its complaint system improperly places the burden of monitoring on citizens. That is, the system is complaint driven, requiring at least 10 complaints from 10 different addresses within a 60-day period, without promising any hope for odor improvement.
DEQ representatives at the meeting told residents that they are not aware of any additional technology that Waste Management could use to reduce odors. The message is that, even if the agency received the requisite 10 complaints in 60 days, there is nothing DEQ could or would do to reduce odors at Riverbend.
Complaining directly to Riverbend doesn't help, either, given the company's tendency to deflect blame onto the wind direction, a new well, or wind blowing at the time garbage is being dumped. In other words, odor is caused by business as usual.
When one neighbor asked Waste Management to acknowledge that the dump smells and they can't do anything about it, the company responded with silence.
Neighbors were also astounded when the company professed surprise that "independent" labs paid by them might have an interest in producing results favorable to the company.
Nothing, of course, was resolved. Nevertheless, filing odor reports can't hurt!
File a formal complaint with DEQ at http://www.deq.state.or.us/complaints/mcomplaint.htm or call 1-888-997-7888.
Report odor to Yamhill County at Mathiss@co.yamhill.or.us (Sherrie Mathison)
Report odor as well as trucks that (a) spew waste en route to or from dump or (b) kick up dust or splash road muck on to passing vehicles directly to Riverbend at 503-472-8788. If the person answering the phone doesn't understand your complaint, ask for Jeff O'Leary or call his cell, 503-857-5870 or email joleary@wm.com.
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