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.
No comments:
Post a Comment