At 7:00 PM on Tuesday, November 28th, the McMinnville City Council will hold a Public Hearing regarding a change to the way garbage collected from City residents and businesses is handled.
Under the proposed change, the City's waste hauler, Recology, will no longer take waste it collects in McMinnville to Riverbend. Instead, Recology proposes to haul the waste to Headquarters Landfill in Cowlitz County, Washington.
To comment on the proposal, one can attend the hearing at McMinnville Civic Hall, 200 NE 2nd Street, or email City Councilors and the Mayor ahead of the meeting. To find out who your Councilor is or to obtain their email addresses, go to https://www.mcminnvilleoregon.gov/citycouncil.
The change will require a proposed 10% rate increase, to take effect in January, 2018. A customer with a $22.00/month garbage bill (which is what at least one small business on Third Street pays) would see its bill rise to a little over $24 a month.
Moreover, as part of the City proposal, Recology would forego the CPI (inflation) rate increase normally due 2018, so the actual increase to customers will end up being somewhat less than the 10% projected.
The proposed destination dump, Headquarters Landfill, is owned by Cowlitz County, Washington. The County purchased the landfill from Weyerhaeuser in March, 2014, and proposed surrounding it with a community forest to buffer landfill activities from neighbors. At 380 acres, Headquarters is nearly 4 times larger than Riverbend and has about 100 years capacity.
At the time of purchase, the landfill was said to be "beautiful" and "well-kept" with no "bad smell." Moreover, the County was treating waste materials that contained hydrogen sulfide to further reduce odors. However, the landfill is in a watershed that drains into a lake, and nearby residents expressed concern about potential leaks.
Last month, Cowlitz County put the landfill up for possible sale due to changes in Washington State environmental laws that require reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Complying with new state rules could cost the County--which makes a profit of about $4million/year from landfill operations--up to $5million/year. Waste Management--of course--is one of those expressing interest in buying the landfill.
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