Commissioners to Decide Expansion on August 6th

The Yamhill County Board of Commissioners has set Thursday, August 6, 2020, as the date it will debate and vote on expanding Riverbend Landfill.

Riverbend first filed this particular expansion plan in 2014, after its earlier "twice as wide, twice as high" plan failed in the courts.

The current plan, as amended by various court decisions, the County, and Riverbend itself, would add 29 acres to the 88-acre dump, adjacent to Highway 18.  A steep 80' berm topped with a roadway would run along the Highway, with only a 50-foot buffer between the roadbed and the foot of the berm.  The RV court that once existed south of the landfill has already been removed; that space would be used for "operations support."  An area between the old RV court and the Highway has been reserved for a future "green" waste processing technology that may or may not ever be built or even invented.

(Map from Riverbend materials; note that the 8-acre area to the north has been removed from the plan.)

The Commissioners have already gotten an earful from citizens opposed to dump expansion.  Now it is Riverbend's turn to try to persuade them that it can safely handle the additional waste without adversely affecting area farms.  The Commissioners have given themselves until the 6th to digest all the new material, as well as five and a half previous years of evidence and court decisions.

One question hovering over the proceedings is whether an expansion of any size is warranted.  Data from 2015 showed that well over 500 years of landfill capacity already existed in the NW Oregon area.  Clearly, there is no need to add more.

Landfill opponents plan to meet outside the County Courthouse (where the Commissioners meet) at 9:15 AM on the 6th.  To learn more, contact info@stopthedumpcoalition.org.

Appeals Court Upholds "Footprint" Expansion

Back in 2016, Riverbend Landfill asked the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for permission to "regrade" the top of the landfill to add an additional 10 feet of waste.  Landfill contours are set by engineering, not laws or contracts; to win DEQ approval, Riverbend had to show that the additional 10 feet would eventually subside.

DEQ agreed with the concept but required a LUCS -- a "land use compatibility statement" -- from Yamhill County before it would allow Riverbend to add the waste.  A LUCS tells DEQ whether the proposed project -- essentially expanding the dump vertically -- is legal under state and local zoning rules.  The County issued the LUCS, without holding a hearing or soliciting any public input, and DEQ allowed Riverbend to proceed.

The basis for the County's decision was a 1992 opinion from its legal counsel that any work related to waste storage (ie, what a landfill does) within the original landfill footprint did not require a hearing.  Waste Not of Yamhill County (now known as Stop the Dump Coalition) sued, alleging that under the current zoning, a hearing is required whenever the landfill is "maintained, expanded, or enhanced."  Waste Not also argued that the new garbage would be added in some of the same areas covered by Riverbend's larger expansion plan, and therefore the Supreme Court decision in that case should control.

The Court of Appeals (COA) disagreed, ruling that Riverbend could not do normal maintenance if a hearing was required each time.  So long as traditional landfill activities were limited to the original, approved landfill footprint, no hearing would be required.

Similarly, the COA held that the Supreme Court considered a different set of facts, including expansion of the landfill beyond the original footprint, and therefore did not control.

By the time the COA decision came out, the matter was essentially moot in any event as Riverbend had already added most of the new waste.

Commissioners Seek Input on Closing Riverbend

As previously reported, the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners is in the midst of a public hearing on the fate of Riverbend Landfill.  Back in 2104, the landfill asked the Board to allow it to expand to within 50' of Highway 18.  Though the Board agreed, a series of court decisions has sent the matter back to the Commissioners to take another look at two key issues:

*  whether the various impacts to area farms that have been adversely impacted by the dump's operations add up to a "significant" effect on those farms' farming practices, and

*  whether litter from the landfill can be reduced such that it will not "significantly" affect the McPhillips Farm's practices.

If the Board finds either that, cumulatively, several impacts on any single farm (including McPhillips Farm) amount to a significant effect OR that litter even when reduced has a significant effect on McPhillips Farm, then the landfill cannot expand.

Although these are the only issues technically before the Board, it doesn't hurt to let your Commissioners know how you feel about having an enormous, smelly dump in the middle of our scenic farmland.

Expansion opponents gather at the County Courthouse Thursday, July 9, 2020.  As the sign on the right indicates, they have been explaining why expansion is a bad idea since 2008.  Photo by Craig Markham.

We might be more inclined to support the landfill if we needed it.  But right now, today, there are hundreds of years of capacity in other landfills in northwestern Oregon and vicinity.  Already the City of McMinnville sends its waste to one of those other landfills, Coffin Butte.

(This chart put together by Metro, 2015.  Both Columbia Ridge and Riverbend are owned by Waste Management.)

Yamhill County doesn't need a problematic expansion; it just needs a garbage company willing to make less money.

Send your comments to Planning Director Ken Friday at fridayk@co.yamhill.or.us by 5:00 PM Thursday, July 16.  You then have another week (till 5:00 PM Thursday, July 23) to rebut any material previously submitted.

To see comment already submitted by both Riverbend and opponents, visit the County Planning website.