Reading about Riverbend Landfill's battle with LUBA over farmland, I find it ironic that real farm issues are not addressed. Instead we are arguing about birds and whether or not the litter on surrounding fields came from trucks hauling to the landfill or the landfill itself.
First, landfills require millions of cubic yards of soil for construction of the perimeter berms, daily cover and final cover. This dirt has to come from somewhere, but no one is asking “from where”, and Waste Management isn't talking.
You would think that with our statewide land use goals, a local comprehensive plan and zoning regulations, saving our top soil would be a concern, but this issue has not been on the radar of the Yamhill County Planning Department, the Yamhill County Planning Commission, and the Yamhill County Commissioners, even though Riverbend Landfill TWICE mined soils outside of its permitted boundary and TWICE did so without the required permit from the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI).
Waste Management has just evicted 70 families from the Mulkey RV park next to the landfill, so if one puts two and two together, we in Yamhill County just traded 70 affordable housing units for several more acres of valuable farmland topsoil to be mined.
This should have been obvious to the Yamhill County decision makers because the plans the County approved show an access road across wetlands and a flood plain to provide a link between the park and the dump.
by Leonard A. Rydell
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