Riverbend Appeals Expansion Denial

Riverbend Landfill has filed a timely notice of appeal with the state Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA).  The appeal challenges Yamhill County's denial of the landfill's expansion request.

That request, originally filed in 2014, would allow the dump to add some 29 acres and move far closer to Highway 18.  The expansion application also enabled Riverbend to dismantle a fully-occupied mobile home park and would require the company to -- eventually -- establish an "alternative" waste processing plant at the dump site.

In rejecting the request, the County Board of Commissioners found that a landfill was no longer required nor sustainable at the present site (between a major tourist highway and a river that is a drinking-water source for several communities) and also that Riverbend could not prevent litter from contaminating neighboring fields.

The notice of appeal starts a legally-mandated clock.  The County must first prepare a "record" of the case (i.e., gather all the paperwork) to ship to LUBA.  Then Riverbend must submit its initial written argument (by October 11 or thereabouts).  The County then has 21 days to respond, and Riverbend gets 21 more days to rebut the County's counter arguments.

Riverbend can be expected to argue that its untested plan for containing litter is effective and sufficient and that the County's other grounds for rejecting its application went beyond the scope of the proceeding.

The County's arguments will likely be prepared by expansion opponents, including Stop the Dump Coalition, Friends of Yamhill County, and McPhillips Farms (the farm most affected by litter), all of which have previously filed legal briefs opposing expansion.

In the meantime, visitors to the dump report that Riverbend is no longer requiring loads to be tarped (a County legal requirement) or supervising dumping of small waste loads.  This can result in mixing of recyclables and dump waste, turning otherwise recyclable materials into dirty trash.

To learn more, contact info@stopthedumpcoalition.org.

Will Riverbend Appeal?

Riverbend Landfill must decide by September 10 whether to appeal Yamhill County's denial of its application to expand.  If the landfill doesn't appeal, the application it originally filed in 2008 is dead, and it is not clear whether a new application could be successful.

That's because the County's denial was based on Riverbend's failure to show that expansion of landfill activities would not adversely affect farming practices and costs in a significant way -- a requirement of expansion under state law.

The state Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) -- which would hear any appeal -- has already made plain that expansion in and of itself significantly harms at least one nearby farm, mainly through litter that escapes from the landfill and from trucks hauling waste, but also in combination with nuisance birds like seagulls attracted to the landfill's generous supply of food waste.  Unless the landfill can come up with foolproof ways to keep litter from escaping and to discourage birds, expansion would not be allowed under state law.

The landfill claims it has already adequately addressed birds by using falcons to haze them.  The County Board of Commissioners noted, however, that even the falconer admitted the falcon program took time -- ie, years -- to work.  In the near future, birds would continue to wreak havoc on nearby grass and hay fields.

Riverbend did propose a Rube Goldberg-style scheme to rein in litter, but the Commissioners rejected the proposal as based on "unrepresentative" and "selective" data and "conjecture" about the effects of that data.

Moreover, the Commissioners took note of a Notice of Violation (NOV) issued against Riverbend by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.  The NOV alleges that the landfill has violated air quality requirements for at least four years.  Riverbend did not tell the County about the NOV, maintaining that it was confidential even though the charges have been posted on the EPA's website* for some time.

Given this history, the Commissioners were understandably skeptical about Riverbend's assurances that their litter-trapping scheme would work.

You can find Board Order 20-284 and the Commissioners' Findings here.

*Enter "McMinnville, OR" in the search bar; this will bring up a map.  Select the red number 3 on the map for a list of local businesses; scroll down to Riverbend and select.  This will call up a detailed report, including a chart detailing violations.