DEQ Asked to Reconsider Vertical Expansion Approval

Earlier this year the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) approved a side-slope modification (vertical expansion) of Riverbend Landfill (the dump).  This vertical expansion will allow Waste Management, the dump's owner, to pile approximately 500,000 tons of garbage on top of the dump's three oldest, unlined, leaking cells.

On Monday, August 28th, the Stop the Dump Coalition and dump neighbors Susan Watkins and Susan Meredith filed a Petition for Reconsideration formally asking DEQ and the Environmental Quality Commission (EQC) to reverse this approval.

The Petition for Reconsideration focuses on three points:

 

1. DEQ did not make complete plans for vertical expansion available to the public for comment.  The public deserves an opportunity to comment in detail on all of the materials submitted by the applicant, Waste Management (WM), but WM did not submit most materials to DEQ until after the public comment period closed.  In fact, as noted in #2 below, WM has still not submitted all required materials.

2. The expansion design DEQ approved exceeds the "allowable slope gradient," in violation of closure requirements for dump side slopes as spelled out in OAR 340-094-0120.  That Rule is based on engineering concerns that steep side slopes may make dumps unstable.  Waste Management claims that the steeper slopes detailed in its plan will soften over time.  Yet Waste Management has still not submitted the required closure and post closure plans DEQ needs in order to make a fact-based determination that the dump will -- eventually -- meet statutory side slope approval criteria. In fact DEQ granted Waste Management's request to delay submitting these plans.  Without the plans, DEQ is basing its decision purely on speculation about what will happen to the dump in the future.

3. The vertical expansion violates state requirements that all closed landfills protect public health, safety, and the environment.  The garbage to be added will go atop dump cells that are actively under investigation for possibly leaking toxic leachate into ground water beside the South Yamhill River.  With approximately half a million tons of garbage covering the likely source of the leaks, it will be impossible to adequately study the problem, let alone remediate it. Until DEQ’s investigation is completed, any approval of the vertical expansion is premature.

Petitioners claim this expansion should not be approved until the public has fully reviewed the proposed expansion and DEQ has substantial evidence that the proposed side slope modifications will not violate the requirements of the law or endanger the public health, safety, or the environment.  Petitioners are asking DEQ and the EQC to hold a public hearing to allow the public to comment on all the materials submitted by Waste Management and that DEQ put its decision to on hold until its investigation into possible leachate leaking is concluded.