The Oregon Court of Appeals has scheduled oral argument in Riverbend Landfill's continuing effort to avoid shutting down for Thursday, August 1, in Salem.
The Landfill's appeal comes after the state Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that Riverbend could not rely on a County approval that required nearby farmers to participate in mitigation measures that would have enabled the landfill to avoid illegal impacts on their farms. Riverbend had sought the approval in order to expand.
The Supreme Court returned the case to LUBA, the state Land Use Board of Appeals, which re-evaluated the evidence and determined that mitigation measures not thrown out by the Court were insufficient to support the County approval. The case would then have gone back to the County Board of Commissioners (BOC), but Riverbend appealed.
The appeal appears to be based on two factors: first, that Riverbend had previously withdrawn an application to expand closer to one of the farms at issue, and second, that LUBA had failed to re-evaluate all of the findings the County had made when originally approving expansion.
In response, expansion opponents point out that LUBA's original decision, the one ultimately heard by the Supreme Court, considered all the findings in detail. Opponents also ask the Court of Appeals to reverse LUBA's rejection of a claim by another farmer that her crop was destroyed by birds attracted to the landfill by poor management practices at the dump. In rejecting that claim, LUBA failed to reconcile its decision with another ruling that appears to recognize the claim.
An interesting point in these ongoing legal matters is that the County declined to join Riverbend's appeal. The composition of the BOC has changed since the expansion was approved, with voters electing two Commissioners who are skeptical of the necessity of expanding a landfill on a major tourist route in Yamhill County.
