Air Quality Meeting Coming Up

Waste Management, Texas-based corporate owner of Riverbend Landfill, has scheduled an air quality meeting for Tuesday, November 1, 2016, at the Senior Center in McMinnville.

Air quality meetings are required semi-annually under the terms of Riverbend's permit from the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

The meeting begins at 6:00 PM with "free pizza and conversation," with the main presentations getting underway at 7:00 PM.  Representatives from DEQ customarily attend.

These meetings are always lively, since so many people live, work, or drive near the dump and therefore smell it frequently.  Riverbend has a reputation within WM as one of the company's consistently stinky dumps.  Though WM claims it has worked on solving the smell problem, the odors, which increase in cooler weather, never diminish and are as bad this fall as ever.

A new wrinkle this season is that DEQ initiated an odor investigation earlier this year after more than a dozen people complained within the requisite 60-day period.  DEQ investigates only if 10 or more people from different home or businesses addresses complain they smelled odors from the same source while at their address, all within 60 days of each other.   This policy has discouraged many from complaining because they know their complaints will be counted only once every other month.

Whether an investigation will prompt any changes at the dump is questionable.  Current DEQ rules require no more than that an odor source use "best practices" to control the smells.  Riverbend claims that is what it already does.

Recently, however, Bullseye Glass and some moss in Portland have focused the state on air quality (at least in Portland).  New air pollution rules have been proposed, but the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission (EQC) is not expected to vote on the new rules before the end of next year -- 2017.

The investigation and the new rules are sure to come up for discussion at the air quality meeting.  Bring your questions, odor reports, and proposed solutions to the meeting:

Tuesday, November 1, 6:00 pm (7:00 pm for presentations)
McMinnville Senior Center, 2250 NE McDaniel Lane, McMinnville

See you there!

EQC Names Richard Whitman Acting Director

The Oregon Environmental Quality Commission (EQC) today named long-time state environmental advisor Richard Whitman to head the agency the Commission oversees until a permanent Director is named.  His tenure begins October 15.

"Richard Whitman's expertise in Oregon's natural resources and experience working with a spectrum of stakeholders to resolve complex challenges is unmatched,” Governor Kate Brown said in a press release issued today.  Whitman served as natural resources advisor under Governors Ted Kulongoski and John Kitzhaber before serving with Brown.  He also served as the state Department of Justice's top environmental lawyer and as Director of the Department of State Lands.  Before entering public service, Whitman practiced environmental law in Portland.

Whitman should be familiar with most issues faced by his new agency, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), including Riverbend Landfill.  Several years ago, members of the Stop the Dump Coalition met with one of Whitman's aides in an attempt to bring environmental issues at the dump to his attention.  STDC will continue to press its case that the dump is a catastrophe, not just waiting to happen, but already happening in terms of harm to water and air quality.