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.