EQC Receives Yinger Report

Stop the Dump Coalition President Ilsa Perse and member Brian Doyle delivered the recent Yinger Report to the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission (EQC) at last week's EQC meeting.  The report, prepared by hydrologist Mark Yinger, uses data prepared by consultants hired by Waste Management to show that leachate is indeed leaking from Riverbend Landfill.

Waste Management (WM) is the Texas-based corporate owner of the landfill.

As reported on this blog (see sidebar), Yinger, a well-respected hydro-geologist who specializes in landfill hydrology, reported in late December 2017 that WM's own data confirm that leachate is not only leaking from the oldest, unlined areas of Riverbend Landfill but has already impacted groundwater quality at two early detection monitoring wells.

Yinger's report confirmed an earlier study he submitted in 2015, also based on WM data.  That report in turn confirmed an analysis prepared several years earlier by Tim Steiber, former Director of the Yamhill County Soil and Water District.

All this information has been submitted to the EQC before, with no action by the Commission or the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), which the Commission leads.  Stop the Dump is hopeful that newly-appointed Commissioners and new Director Richard Whitman will treat this information differently and require a thorough review of ground water contamination at the landfill.