With Closure Hearing Less Than a Week Away, Questions Mount

As previously reported, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) will hold a public hearing next week to consider issuing a closure permit to Riverbend Landfill.

The landfill abruptly closed its doors to community garbage last summer, and now takes in only soils and "waste by appointment" as it tries to fill all the nooks and crannies in its giant mound.

Outraged citizens immediately sought DEQ's help in figuring out what was happening. Had the dump closed? Could it keep its doors shut but the landfill itself open indefinitely? Fueling these questions was another lurking issue:  Riverbend's operating permit expired in 2009. DEQ has extended the permit administratively ever since, citing uncertainties about the landfill's numerous expansion applications.

With the County's definitive rejection of Riverbend's expansion plans in 2020, citizens were ready for DEQ to act. As far as the public knows, DEQ did nothing, even when the landfill closed its doors last June. Finally, in January 2022, DEQ asked Riverbend to apply for a closure/post-closure permit; the landfill filed the permit on January 27, DEQ drafted a proposed permit, and the hearing is set for next week.

But what will the hearing address? The Notice of Hearing says the draft closure permit is based on a closure plan last updated in 2017 and a permit application dated Jan. 27, 2022. The draft permit itself says the permit is based on that January closure permit application plus a solid waste permit renewal application received Aug. 19, 2009, and a Land Use Compatibility Statement (LUCS) from the Yamhill County Planning Department dated Nov. 16, 2016.  Which is it?

To complicate things, the 2017 closure plan has been modified by Riverbend, at least twice. So which version of this "last updated in 2017" plan is DEQ relying on?

Finally, financial assurances are a huge part of the closure permit; landfill owners must agree to manage their dumps for at least thirty years post-closure. Yet DEQ has not yet revealed the criteria by which it judges the sufficiency of financial bonds and set-asides. And Riverbend's 2022 assurance letter, due in April, has not been posted by DEQ on its Riverbend web page.

In fact, only some of these documents are available on the web page. You can find the "public notice, draft closure permit and permit evaluation report," the January 2022 "Riverbend Landfill Closure Permit Application" form, the 2009 "Riverbend Landfill Solid Waste Permit Renewal Application" form, the 2017 "Closure and post-closure plan," and 2021 "Closure and post-closure financing" documents (which include the 2021 update to the never-modified 2017 plan) on the web page--but not the 2016 LUCS or other documents supposedly attached to the January 2022 application.

All of these contradictions and missing documents beg the question whether DEQ has figured out what it is doing.

Which means the Department needs your help in closing Riverbend! Don't miss out on all the fun -- register for the hearing now!  On the Riverbend web page, of course.

Hearing: Wednesday, June 22 at 6:30 PM only on Zoom!

Comments: Submit at the Hearing or email to:DEQWR.SolidWastePermitCoordinator@deq.oregon.gov