Riverbend Requests Hearing

Hold on to your hats, folks, the Dump Express is taking off again.

Maybe we should say the Dump Roller Coaster.  Riverbend Landfill (RLI) has asked the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners (BOC) to reopen its hearing on the expansion RLI proposed back in 2014.

This is the plan we previously noted was approved by the BOC, appealed to the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA), remanded to the BOC and approved again, appealed again to LUBA and from there to the Court of Appeals (COA) and the state Supreme Court, which sent it back to LUBA, which remanded it to the BOC, which order was appealed to the COA, which upheld LUBA (pause here for breath).

Along that tortuous journey, many issues were resolved, so that if the BOC were to approve the expansion today, Riverbend could start dumping waste on 29 new acres adjacent to Highway 18, rising to 282' above sea level (or about 180' above the highway).  The berm surrounding this new "module" would come within 50' of the roadway, immediately rise 80' into the air, and be capped by an internal dump road.

Imagine driving into McMinnville on Highway 18 at dusk only to see headlights coming at you above your right shoulder!

The dump would also have to agree to install a "green technology" facility on the site at some nebulous time in the future.  Waste Management, Riverbend's Texas-based corporate owner, has had six years since filing its expansion application to develop this fantastic technology, with no progress in sight.  It might be that it's more lucrative for the company to promise the moon while seeking expansion and then close the dump before the requirement to actually deliver the moon kicks in.

If the BOC agrees to reopen the hearing, what would the Board hear?  Riverbend says there are two issues:  Whether a litter fence proposed by the dump catches enough plastic bags to ensure that nearby farms won't have to alter their farming practices in any significant way; and whether the minor adverse effects the expanded landfill would have on area farms add up to significant impacts.

Landfill opponents counter that the Supreme Court and LUBA (see above summary of the case so far) have already decided Q1 against Riverbend.  That is, the Supreme Court held that the only valid mitigation Riverbend proposed to minimize litter was that fence, and LUBA held that the evidence the BOC already heard in previous hearings was insufficient to show that the fence did any good.  Based on these judicial determinations, the only legal conclusion that can be reached is that Riverbend failed to prove it can expand without impacting farms significantly -- the standard it has to meet in order to win the right to expand.

Given that conclusion, the BOC doesn't have to consider Q2.  The roller coaster ride is over.  Riverbend loses.

Or are we dreaming again?