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

 

 

DEQ Issues Public Hearing Notice for Riverbend Closure Permit

DEQ, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, informed Yamhill County and other interested parties yesterday that it intends to issue a closure permit for Riverbend Landfill.

 

DEQ has invited the public to read and comment on the proposed permit (which can be found at Notice). The hearing itself will be held virtually on June 22 at 6:30 PM, with written comments due by 5 p.m., Monday, June 27. Links to the hearing and to the address to send comments are given at the end of this post.

 

The closure process is typically started by the landfill operator, though County Planning Director Ken Friday told the County Commissioners that he was not sure who initiated Riverbend's permit. The Notice itself refers to "a permit application dated Jan. 27, 2022," which would seem to indicate that Riverbend and/or its parent company, WM (formerly known as Waste Management, the world-wide garbage behemoth) did, indeed, ask DEQ to move forward with closure. The News-Register of McMinnville stated in today's edition that DEQ asked Riverbend to request the permit.

 

The Notice describes the closure process as follows:

 

"Given the reduction in waste flow over the past several months, DEQ is proposing to issue a closure permit for the landfill. This permit is based on a closure plan last updated in 2017 and a permit application dated Jan. 27, 2022.

 

"Under the proposed closure permit, Riverbend Landfill will continue accepting waste until it has used all its permitted capacity. The landfill will also install an impermeable final cover on uncapped portions of the landfill once they are full. The draft permit requires that final closure be completed within eight years of the date of permit issuance. 

 

"The closure permit does not prevent the landfill from continuing to accept waste in the approximately eight years prior to closure and does not prevent the applicant from applying for a permit modification for an expansion in the future."

 

The "permitted capacity" referenced in the Notice is not a specified volume but rather is based on an approved slope leading up from the permitted landfill footprint. Riverbend acknowledged a year ago that the dump as then structured had reached capacity; in response, the landfill shut its doors to the public and to haulers other than WM's Newberg hauling subsidiary. Riverbend's intention was to restructure the slopes of the dump to create platforms on which to pile more garbage. Though it is not clear to what extent that strategy has been successful, the proposed closure permit would give the company six more years to continue the process, using contaminated soils and curated garbage.

 

The proposed permit is good for ten years, through June 30, 2032.  DEQ estimates that closure at similar landfills takes a minimum of 30 years. Landfill owners are expected to pre-fund all anticipated costs associated with closure. Documents accompanying the proposed permit cite several past escapes of leachate from the landfill, its leachate ponds, and/or trucks hauling leachate off-site.

 

A cursory review of the proposed permit revealed no requirement for oversight by, or even for sharing information with, the public.

 

To read the Notice in full, go to Notice.

 

To register for the June 22 Zoom public hearing, go to: 

https://ordeq.org/Riverbend-closure-permit-public-hearing 

Alternatively, join the hearing by calling 877-853-5257 or 888-475-4499, using meeting ID 865 1813 7706 and passcode 651889.

 

DEQ will accept written public comment on the proposed permit until 5 p.m., Monday, June 27, 2022, at deqwr.solidwastepermitcoordinator@deq.oregon.gov 

or by mail at Solid Waste Permit Coordinator, Oregon DEQ, 165 E. Seventh Avenue, Suite 100, Eugene, OR 97401.

 

For further information, contact Denise Miller, Permit Coordinator, at 541-687-7465 or deqwr.solidwastepermitcoordinator@deq.oregon.gov.

 

 

UPDATED - Title V Community Meeting Coming November 30

As part of its Air Quality (Title V) permit obligations, Riverbend Landfill is required to hold community meetings twice a year.  The next such meeting is now scheduled for November 30 at 7:00 PM.

This meeting is significant because the permit itself is up for renewal.  Given the way Riverbend has resisted responsibility for methane leaks in the past (see earlier articles), community members are on edge, nervous that the state Department of Environmental Quality, which both writes and enforces the permit, will use vague language that will let the dump continue to skirt environmental laws.

The Environmental Quality Commission, which oversees DEQ, is meeting November 17 & 18 and will take public comment beginning at 3:20 PM on the 17th, also virtually.  This will be an excellent opportunity to tell DEQ to write a strong permit that protects our air and makes the landfill operator liable for any emission release above the permitted total.

To attend the Title V meeting, contact mramos14@wm.com to "receive log-in credentials" and be placed on the email notification list. Nick Godfrey, dump manager, has promised to send out email notices telling the public how to attend the meeting on November 15.  Notices are also being posted in the Newberg Graphic and Yamhill Valley News-Register.

In the past, the virtual Title V meetings have been held on a Microsoft platform that many would-be participants have had difficulty logging onto, but there has been a phone-in option. 

To address the EQC, one must "sign-up" at the start of the Public Forum agenda item scheduled for 3:20 PM, at either:

• Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84116951899 or
  
• Toll-free telephone access: 877-853-5257
  
• Meeting ID: 841 1695 1899

Speakers are asked to limit comments to three minutes or less.

To contact the EQC outside of the public forum, contact Stephanie Caldera or call 503-229-5301.

 

Air Quality Meeting Coming Up!

Riverbend Landfill will hold an Air Quality meeting this coming Wednesday, April 28, at 7:00 PM.  The meeting will be virtual.

Air Quality meetings are required twice yearly by the dump's air pollution permit.  (Because the McMinnville area has relatively clean air, noxious gas emitters like Riverbend are allowed to pollute it.)  The public is invited, but you must register (see below).

Attendees at the meeting are sure to ask Riverbend's representatives about the Notice of Violation (NOV) issued last year by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  The NOV disclosed that Riverbend has violated federal law for years by failing to locate, report, and fix leaking "cover" on the landfill.  Riverbend has maintained that its discussions with the EPA are confidential, but much of the data appears on the EPA's public website, and the NOV itself is public.

The dump has also been stinking strongly the past few weeks, and neighbors and commuters will want to know why.

Finally, attendees may also be interested in Riverbend's plans for the future now that the state Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) has upheld the County's rejection of the dump's expansion effort.

Be prepared to receive no answer to any of your questions.

To register for the virtual meeting, contact Kendra Thompson, Waste Management Operations Specialist, Sr. - Landfill, at kthomp19@wm.com.  She will send you a link to the meeting.  Be aware that Waste Management uses Microsoft Teams for its meetings, a platform that has given would-be users trouble in the past.

County Board to Review New SWAC Bylaws

On Tuesday, October 22, the County Board of Commissioners (BOC) will hold a work session to review proposed new bylaws for the County's Solid Waste Advisory Committee (SWAC).  SWAC, a citizens' committee mandated by state law, advises the BOC about waste hauling and disposal rates and other matters related to solid waste collection and disposal.

Currently, SWAC operates under provisions in state and County law.  The new bylaws are expected to "fill in the gaps" between those statutory requirements and operational practice, such as filling vacancies.  In the past, the County has often filled SWAC vacancies by soliciting recommendations from industry members on the committee.  This has led to a committee weighted in favor of industry interests.

By local ordinance, industry representatives fill two voting positions on the committee.  The other five positions are reserved for citizens, who must fit into one of several broadly described slots, such as "local organizations" whose members are electors or property owners in the County or "residents residing near or adjacent to a regional disposal site."  Nothing in the ordinance requires citizens to have demonstrated any knowledge of or interest in solid waste issues.

In fact, when members of Stop the Dump Coalition, a local organization whose members are County electors who own property in the County, applied to fill SWAC vacancies, industry representatives led a move to reject their applications precisely because they know a lot about solid waste issues.

Other membership issues that bylaws could address are holding over and attendance at meetings.  County ordinance calls for three-year terms, but members are often allowed to remain in office for many years beyond that.  And members who seldom show up for SWAC meetings (only four a year, one of which traditionally is a tour of Riverbend Landfill or other waste-related facility) are not called to task for their absences.

Adopting bylaws could encourage SWAC to move more aggressively to recruit candidates with a demonstrated interest in SWAC's agenda and to populate the committee with citizens who oppose as well as support industry measures.  The BOC could also be asked to amend the ordinance to make industry representatives ex officio rather than voting members.

With changes like these, SWAC could become the serious, thoughtful review board that state law contemplates.

The work session on the proposed bylaws will be held Tuesday, October 22, at 1:30 in Room 32 of the County Courthouse at the corner of 5th and Evans in McMinnville.  Note:  This is a discussion session only, and public testimony is not normally allowed.

Dump Air Quality Meeting Tuesday!

Yes, Riverbend Landfill is hosting its semi-annual air quality meeting Tuesday, April 16, at Chemeketa Community College in McMinnville.  Landfill personnel will present information about well-drilling and gas collection at the dump and answer audience questions.  DEQ -- the state Department of Environmental Quality -- will also have a representative at the meeting.

Big questions for the landfill center on the Odor Nuisance Study conducted there by DEQ in 2017.  After spending a year sampling the air (by smelling it, using individuals trained to detect different odors and to judge odor strength), DEQ took another full year to "analyze" the data.

Mind you, this was not a lab analysis; the only data to analyze were notes on pieces of paper.

Yamhill County expected to receive the results this past winter, only to learn that the study had been put on hold after the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took an interest in Riverbend.  Neither the EPA nor DEQ has been forthcoming on the exact nature of the EPA investigation, and there is as yet no word on when either agency will complete its work.  Perhaps Riverbend or DEQ will have more to say at Tuesday's meeting.

DEQ has been under the gun lately after a series of articles in the Oregonian highlighted problems with the agency's oversight of industries it regulates, including those belching foul odors.  You can read about these problems here.

To attend the air quality meeting:

Tuesday, April 16, 6:00 pm for pizza and chat; 7:00 pm for the presentation
Chemeketa Community College
288 NE Norton Lane, McMinnville
Building 1, Room #105

Landfill to Star on Small Screen?

With its future shrouded in uncertainty as a result of the recent Oregon Supreme Court decision calling the dump's expansion into doubt, is Riverbend Landfill looking to the Small Screen to keep its coffers full?

Little birds (mainly seagulls and falcons) have dropped serious hints lately that our lowly mountain of a dump may soon be streaming on a screen near you!

Imagine twenty hardy women and men, provisioned with nothing more than machetes, canteens, hefty bags of rice, nose plugs, and the clothes on their backs, living off the land for six weeks.  You've guessed it!  Survivor: Landfill is expected to begin filming at the dump in November.

Sources tell us that CBS Television decided to go with a winter format to maximize contestants' misery, a hallmark of the show.  Contestants can expect floods, snow, hordes of seagulls and vermin, falcon attacks, miasmic odors, and thousands of tons of garbage.  They will have to dodge coyotes and well-drilling rigs and watch for toxic leachate leaks.

  

While participants will be forced to flee from the waste while it's being dumped, they will also be competing with mighty bulldozers, tractors, excavators, compactors, grapples, and loaders for the precious foodstuffs and textiles buried in the dumped trash.  From the looks of things, they won't want for comfy furniture, protection from the elements, soft beds, or even personal waste disposal!

Photo of dump in snow by Delahanty; bottom, dump runoff enters McPhillips Creek

Contestants will be able to augment their food supplies with fish, including delicacies such as six-legged frogs, they catch themselves in the South Yamhill River across from the old leaking Whiteson dump.  They can also snare the critters that frequent the landfill, including the aforementioned birds and vermin.

Participants should not lack for shelter, however, as the dump is covered with tarps they can use for tent material.  And numerous methane leaks will provide a ready fuel for fire.

We're told that the winner -- the Sole Survivor -- will be honored with a special reward for surviving this ordeal:  a year's free waste disposal!  Of course, he or she will have to bring the garbage to the landfill themselves.

We look forward to this amazing show -- or would, if Survivor: Landfill weren't an April Fool!

Title V Meeting Set for April 19

Riverbend Landfill's Title V Air Quality permit requires Waste Management to hold a "community meeting" twice yearly.  The next one has just been scheduled, for Thursday, April 19, at 7:00 pm at Chemeketa Community College in McMinnville.

Usually these meetings consist of a list of steps Waste Management has taken to reduce emissions and odor from the landfill -- always failed steps, as it turns out.  (Have you driven past the dump lately?  Pee-yoo!)  Then dump managers tell us what they plan to do in the next few months to produce more odor, like open up old cells either to add additional waste or to install new wells, which are supposed to (but never do) reduce odors.

One item we'd love to see on the agenda is the result of the year-long odor survey undertaken by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in 2017.  Specially trained members of DEQ's staff visited the dump and surrounding neighborhood several times during the year to measure the presence and intensity of odors.

Once those measurements are gathered, staff analysts at a DEQ lab must examine the data with respect to other factors such as local wind patterns, according to Claudia Davis of DEQ's Air Quality division.  DEQ will also contact Riverbend for its input.  If DEQ staff then believes the existing odor might amount to a nuisance, it forwards its information to a Nuisance Odor Panel comprised of DEQ senior or executive managers who will decide whether to issue Riverbend a "Notice of Suspected Nuisance."

The Panel is supposed to issue its evaluation within three weeks after receiving the request for review.  If the Panel finds a possible nuisance, DEQ will ask Riverbend to enter into a "best practices" agreement to reduce odors.

This has always been the sticking point with odors at Riverbend:  whether there are "practices" Waste Management can implement that would reduce the smell.  There's one obvious solution, of course:  Stop taking waste that smells!

Please come to the meeting to share your opinions with Waste Management!

 

City Pulls Waste from Riverbend

The McMinnville City Council voted unanimously last Tuesday night to direct hauler Recology to divert city waste from Riverbend Landfill.  Recology has proposed sending garbage from the City's residents and businesses to Headquarters Landfill in Washington State.

The new landfill will not need to expand in order to accommodate the extra garbage as it has a hundred years' capacity remaining.  Riverbend is expected to reach capacity in mid-2019, according to landfill officials.

The change in destination comes with a rate increase, but the amount varies with the volume of waste a household has picked up each week.  Residents can reduce the amount they pay by buying items with less packaging, reusing items, and recycling more, enabling them to use a smaller and cheaper waste container.

Recology can handle the change because earlier this year the City approved construction of a transfer station at its Orchard Avenue site.  Recology can now transfer waste from city garbage trucks to semi trailers for the long haul to Washington.  Previously the city garbage trucks went directly to Riverbend.

The new order will go into effect in January 2018.

New Location for Vertical Expansion Hearing

The state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has reissued the public notice for the upcoming hearing on a permit that would allow Waste Management (WM) to increase the height of Riverbend Landfill.

The new notice moves the May 2nd information meeting and public hearing to the Falls Event Center (aka Evergreen Aviation Museum campus), 510 NE Captain Michael King Smith Way, Main Hall, McMinnville.  A short informational meeting on the proposal will begin at 6 p.m., to be followed by the formal public hearing.

The proposed permit would modify WM's existing landfill operating permit by allowing WM to change the final grading plan for a 20-acre portion of the 87-acre landfill.  If the permit is modified as proposed, WM will be able to add an additional 400,000 tons of garbage to the landfill and to remain open about another year before reaching capacity.  The 20 acres affected include the original three landfill cells, which are not lined and which lie in the floodplain of the South Yamhill River and fill with water each year when the river floods.

A larger, 29-acre expansion proposal remains in the courts.  That expansion would bring a 90-foot high swath of the landfill to within 50 feet of Highway 18 and also cover the original three cells.

To comment on the proposed vertical expansion, you can testify at the public hearing or you can submit written comments for the public record by mail, fax, or email to the Riverbend DEQ permit writer:

Bob Schwarz
Oregon DEQ
400 E. Scenic Drive, Suite 307
The Dalles, Oregon 97058                                       

Email: schwarz.bob@deq.state.or.us

Phone: 541-298-7255, ext. 230
Fax: 541-298-7330

Written comments are due not later than 5:00 pm, May 8, 2017.

Stop the Dump Coalition Files LUBA Brief

Jeffrey Kleinman, attorney for the Stop the Dump Coalition and its allies, filed the organization's brief with LUBA, the state Land Use Board of Appeals, on Earth Day, April 22.  The legal brief highlights the many errors made by Yamhill County and Riverbend Landfill Company in reconsidering Riverbend's latest request to expand its dump on the South Yamhill River.

In rejecting the County's initial approval in 2015, LUBA directed the County to require Riverbend to prove that the expansion would not significantly harm farming near the dump.  The County had mistakenly put the burden on farmers to show that the expansion would be harmful.

Farmers alleged harm to their crops from litter (which fouls harvesting equipment and makes baled hay unusable), birds (especially seagulls and crows; the gulls damage newly-planted grass, the crows attack livestock, and bird poop damages all crops), noise (which stresses poultry), and odor (which discourages customers from shopping at farms downwind of the dump).

Instead of soliciting new evidence on these and other points at a new hearing the County held last February, however, the County relied heavily on new arguments based on the evidence it had rejected the year before.  To no one's surprise, the result was the same:  expansion approval.  Stop the Dump promptly appealed.

The brief charges that the County continues to make farmers prove harm.  For example, where one farmer said birds harm his fields and another said the birds don't cause any harm, the County found no harm.  Legally, however, if evidence on both sides of the harm issue is equal, the County is required to find against Riverbend.  That would preclude approval.

Kleinman's brief also cited Riverbend's own evidence that bird hazing methods employed by the landfill cause birds to disperse to nearby farms at exactly the crucial time of year when newly-planted grass has begun to sprout.  The County liked the hazing methods so much that it required Riverbend to haze even more.

Riverbend and the County now have a chance to respond.  Their written briefs are due May 13.  LUBA will then hear live argument from attorneys for all parties on June 2 in Salem.  The public is invited:

775 Summer Street NE (the State Lands Building), Land Board Room, 1st Floor, Salem
Thursday, June 2, 2016, at 9:00 AM

Air Quality Meeting Coming Up!

The next Waste Management/DEQ air quality meeting regarding Riverbend Landfill is set for the evening of Wednesday, April 27.

Every five years, DEQ -- the state Department of Environmental Quality -- issues the landfill a "Title V" permit to pollute the air.  (Because the McMinnville area's air is basically clean, the landfill can pollute a lot.)

DEQ promises to monitor the area's air quality and to modify the permit if the air is degraded too much.  If you've been following the news out of Portland, you know how well DEQ has been handling that job.

Locally, at least, the reps from DEQ who handle Riverbend's Title V permits have worked with landfill neighbors to try to tighten up restrictions.  But DEQ doesn't see its job as protecting the environment from landfills; DEQ sees its job as threefold, protecting the environment, cleaning up messes, and solid waste disposal.

We are not making this up.  The draft job description for the new Director (yes, Dick Pedersen resigned following the Portland air quality scandal) describes DEQ's mission this way:  "DEQ is responsible for protecting and enhancing Oregon's water and air quality, for cleaning up spills and releases of hazardous materials, and for managing the proper disposal of hazardous and solid wastes" -- as if disposal of waste has nothing to do with "protecting and enhancing water and air."

One more reason why the County's lame attempt to foist enforcement of any kind of environmental rule off onto DEQ's back is so, well, lame.

Meeting:  Title V Air Permit Meeting (held by Waste Management, mandated by permit)
Wednesday, April 27, 7:00, at Chemeketa Community College, 288 NE Norton Lane, McMinnville (ie, right off Highway 18 across from the hospital).  Come early for pizza and schmoozing.

 

Let's Talk Trash

This Wednesday, November 4, at 7:00 PM in the evening, Portland Metro will be talking trash.

“What our trash says when we’re gone” is part of the ongoing “Let’s Talk Trash” series put on by Metro.  Co-host for Wednesday's segment is the Oregon Historical Society.  The free event, which will feature a panel of trash experts, will be held at the Oregon Historical Society, 1200 SW Park Avenue, in Portland.

This is a great opportunity to tell Metro not only what trash you don't want to leave behind, but where you don't want to leave it.

Is it environmentally sound to dump garbage on a river?  Of course not.  But Waste Management would have you and everyone who lives in Portland Metro believe that their trash is hauled away to a safe depository where it will never harm the water, the soil, the air, or the next generation.

It's hard to blame the people who live and work in the Metro area.  Most of them have no idea how much of their trash makes its way to Riverbend.  Video on the Metro Website really shows only Arlington as the final resting ground for most of Metro's trash.  Even the PR for Wednesday's event reads as if all Metro's garbage heads east (emphasis added):

"The Oregon Historical Society and Metro invite you to a discussion about roles of landfills in dealing with our region’s waste. Where were they located and what is there now? How did we wind up deciding to send garbage to Eastern Oregon? What role will landfills play in our future?"  No mention of Riverbend or the South Yamhill River anywhere.

Stop the Dump will be at the meeting, bringing hand-outs and information to share with people who don't yet know how badly Metro is green-washing them.  Join us!  Help educate the people who send their waste to us about the environmental harm they are doing.

To learn more, contact Ken Ray at 503-797-1508 or by email at ken.ray@oregonmetro.gov or visit http://www.oregonmetro.gov/news/lets-talk-trash-event-what-our-trash-says-when-were-gone and http://www.oregonmetro.gov/public-projects/solid-waste-roadmap/lets-talk-trash.

LUBA to Hear Expansion Appeal on September 17

Next Thursday, September 19, the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals -- LUBA -- will hear arguments in the lawsuit filed by the Stop the Dump Coalition against the expansion of Riverbend Landfill.

Lawyers for Stop the Dump and other expansion opponents will try to convince LUBA's panel of judges that the procedure the County followed in approving the expansion was flawed and that the evidence the County relied on was legally inadequate.

One big bone of contention is the Farm Assessment submitted by Waste Management, which owns the dump.  Expansion opponents argue that the Assessment mischaracterized both the nature of farm activities surrounding the landfill and the extent to which the landfill's operation impacts those practices.

Another key point involves the unannounced visits that County Commissioners made to the landfill and other communications between Commissioners and Waste Management personnel.  Opponents were not privy to these visits and communications, and Stop the Dump's lawyers say that violates the law.

Besides the Stop the Dump Coalition, appellants include the Willamette Valley Wineries Association, McPhillips Farms, and Friends of Yamhill County.  The argument is open to the public.

IF YOU GO:

"Stop the Dump Coalition et al v. Yamhill County"

LUBA - Case #2015-036  

9/17/2015 at 1:30 PM

Land Board Room - 1st Floor

Department of State Lands Building

775 Summer Street NE (between Union and D Streets), Salem 97301

Park & Pay – Yellow Lot - bounded by Center, Summer, Marion, and Winter Streets.
Daily parking is available in the Capitol Mall area Yellow Lot at a self-serve park and pay machine.  $6/day.  Payment only by debit/credit VISA/MC (from machine in lot).

From Yellow Lot walk 1.5 blocks north on Summer Street to the State Lands Building.

Commissioners To Decide Landfill Fate March 12

WHAT:    Yamhill County Board of Commissioners Meeting
WHERE:  McMInnville Civic Hall, 200 NE 2nd Street (corner of Baker in McMinnville)
WHEN:   Thursday, March 12th, 10 AM (come early to get seating!)
WHY:       Because having the largest garbage dump west of the Cascades is not in Yamhill County's best interest

Can't come to the meeting?  Email your comments to Mike Brandt at the Planning Department:  brandtm@co.yamhill.or.us.

Many of you did this last December -- the record is full of citizens' comments. THANK YOU!  But it is important that you do it again.  You will be joining the City of McMinnville, which wrote last year to express their  concerns that dump expansion is not in the region's best interests. The City Council continues to stick their necks way out.  Please join them one last time and voice your concerns.

Do you farm near the dump?  Do garbage stink, litter and blowing garbage, and hordes of birds impact your farm? Could your ability to sell your farm be impacted by proximity to the dump?  What about getting a farm loan?  Does decreased property value because of proximity to the dump affect how much you can borrow?  All of these are important arguments.

Other important issues include:  •odors  •emissions of all kinds •litter •the visual effect of having a mountain of garbage sitting 50 feet from Highway 18 •out-of-county waste

In the last few months, the  percent of out-of-county garbage coming to the dump has grown while Yamhill County waste has decreased.  In the years to come this trend will probably continue.  More and more garbage from every place else.  This will be the only opportunity to impress upon the Commissioners that Yamhill County is not well-served being Metro's garbage pit.

Cultivating garbage instead of food is not a farming practice, but operating a winery is, along with growing grapes, grass, veggies, filberts; raising chickens, sheep, dogs, horses, goats, pheasants.  How will an ever-expanding garbage "farm" impact the livelihoods of the real farmers in the neighborhood?  

Waste Management and DEQ both admit that odor control has been ineffective.  The smell continues.  Should the County have to suffer from another 20 years of the stink?

Ground and surface water contamination is another real problem that the County and DEQ have ignored.  In the past year alone, tens of thousands of gallons of leachate poured out of the dump into local waterways and storm water runoff has been contaminated by zinc and E.coli.  Why should  farmers, all the way to the Willamette River and beyond, have to irrigate their land with water that flows by such an obvious source of water contamination?  Who will want to buy food that is irrigated with contaminated water?

Let the County know you are concerned about these issues.  Include your personal observations and experiences.  Tell our Commissioners what restrictions they should place on continued landfill operations.

And thank you for your efforts. We couldn't do this without all of you!

Sincerely, the Stop the Dump Coalition

Riverbend Files for Expansion

Riverbend Landfill's expansion plans are sitting on the desk of Yamhill County Planning Director Mike Brandt.  The applications for Site Design Review and a Flood Plain Development permit were filed this morning, November 6.  The County deemed the papers complete almost immediately and posted them on the Planning Department web page this afternoon.


Although Waste Management has had months or even years to prepare the applications, County residents and businesses get only a month to review the materials.  The matter will be submitted to the County Planning Commission for hearing at the Commission's regular meeting December 4.

In the meantime, Waste Management will discuss the expansion proposal at a "community meeting" next Tuesday evening, November 11.  This meeting is required by the ordinance that rezoned the existing dump from Public Works/Safety to Exclusive Farm Use.  At the meeting, Waste Management will present its plans and answer questions.  Information generated at the meeting is supposed to be made part of the record that the Planning Commission must consider when it reviews the applications.

Because it's not known at this time whether the community meeting will be recorded, participants are urged to submit questions and comments in writing and to ask Waste Management to put all answers in writing.  Alternatively, save your comments, written and oral, for the Planning Commission hearing.

The process:

"Community meeting" next Tuesday, November 11, at 6:15 pm at the McMinnville Grand Ballroom, 325 NE Third Street in Mac.  Everyone invited; "light supper" to be provided; information becomes part of the "record" of the SDR review process.

Planning Commission hearing, Thursday, December 4, 7:00 pm in the McMinnville Civic Center on the corner of Baker and 2nd Streets in Mac.  The Commission could reach a decision that same night, but judging by past practice will probably put the decision off until January to allow the parties to submit follow-up comments.

Board of Commissioners hearing, date to be decided.  This hearing takes place only if someone appeals the Planning Commission's decision.  As they consistently have in the past, the Board of Commissioners can wholly ignore the Planning Commission's decision and reasoning.

The Board's decision is final unless appealed to the Land Use Board of Appeals.

The application:

You can download the application documents at http://www.co.yamhill.or.us/content/riverbend-landfill (under "Riverbend Expansion Applications").  (Warning:  Downloading the SDR app may take a while.)

Whatchamacolumn: Bladine Gets It Right!

Jeb Bladine's Whatchamacolumn in the October 31st News-Register exposes Waste Management's latest shenanigan:  offering funds to cash-strapped County governments shortly before those communities will have to weigh in on dump expansion.

The national company just "happened" to choose Yamhill County for $150,000 in grants to be doled out this fall -- just weeks before the company submits its plans for expansion of Riverbend Landfill.

According to Bladine, WM and the County have created a joint partnership to parcel out the funds to deserving local projects.  Our County Commissioners may not see their actions this way, but from here it appears that County government is working hand-in-hand with a private corporation to buy support for the expansion plan.

This is only the latest in a series of efforts by Waste Management that could be perceived as "buying community support" for extending the smelly, noisy, water-threatening life of its dump on the banks of the South Yamhill River.  The Stewardship Lands effort and the fund the County set up to channel WM license fees directly into projects favored by influential County leaders are two others.  (For details on the Stewardship projects, see "Stewardship Land Projects:  The Right Move? below.)

Of course, the County has already approved a rezoning that was widely viewed as a prerequisite to any expansion.  But other jurisdictions will have the chance to file objections or propose conditions when the plans come before the County Planning Commission (which could be as soon as December or January).  We trust those agencies won't allowed their good sense to be swayed by Waste Management's dollars.

We're told that communities within Metro are also being offered cash by Waste Management.  Metro of course must soon decide whether to extend contracts with Waste Management that allow a percentage of Metro waste to come to Riverbend.

Local governments aren't the only parties with an opportunity to weigh in on expansion soon.  Individual residents and businesses can also participate -- even if they don't get any Waste Management money!  First up, a "community meeting" to be held by Waste Management at 6:15 pm, Tuesday, November 11 in the McMinnville Grand Ballroom (see related story below, "Witches and Goblins and Landfills, Oh My!").

Important Meetings Coming Up!

Air Quality Meeting

6:00 - 8:00 PM
Tuesday, April 29 at the McMinnville Senior Center at 2250 NE McDaniel Lane.

This is the public meeting that the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) requires Waste Management to hold twice yearly to address issues with air emissions and odor.  The public is encouraged to ask questions and to report problems.

Attending this year's meeting will be Gary Andes and Claudia Davis, who monitor Riverbend's compliance with its Title V (air quality) permit, and Bob Schwarz, who monitors the landfill's operations.  Bryan Smith will be on hand to discuss DEQ's new odor reporting form.

In addition to odor and VOCs (volatile organic compounds) that leak into the air from Riverbend, dust on the roadways has been a big concern lately.  Since Waste Management began to reconfigure the dump to make room for the mechanically stabilized earthen berm (the wall that will allow the landfill to accept 2,000,000 additional tons of garbage over the next three years), Highway 18 has been muddier than usual.  Erosion into the creeks that flank the landfill is also a concern.

Candidates' Night

7:00 - 9:00 PM
Wednesday, April 30 at the McMinnville Senior Center at 2250 NE McDaniel Lane.


Yamhill County's resource organizations -- the Farm Bureau, Small Woodlands Association, the Willamette Valley Wineries Association, and Friends of Yamhill County -- host their traditional election year Candidates' night.  Most candidates for County Commissioner will be present to answer audience questions.

One candidate who may not be attending is Stan Primozich, who testified in favor of landfill rezoning at the Planning Commission hearing late last year.  That public advocacy of dump expansion may mean Primozich would have to recuse himself from any hearings involving expansion, should he be elected.

Landfill Expansion? Count the Ways This Is a BAD IDEA

OK, now you know why the rezoning hearing, November 7 at 7:00 pm in front of the County Planning Commission, is such a big deal (if you don't, see Why You Need to Tell the Planning Commission:  No Rezone for Riverbend! below).

But why is landfill expansion such a bad idea?

Let me count the ways....

The dump damages the County economy.  The dump sits between Highway 18 -- the busiest tourist highway in the state -- and the South Yamhill River.  Everyone driving along Hwy 18 can see the dump, and at least half the time can smell it.  Not the best advertisement for stopping in Yamhill County to enjoy the scenery (or local businesses).

The dump threatens our water.  The river itself is in jeopardy.  At least once a year river floodwaters lap against the landfill.  Given that some of the early garbage cells are unlined and improperly compacted, it is highly likely that the landfill is contaminating the Yamhill River and groundwater.

In fact, DEQ and Waste Management (Texas-based corporate owner of the landfill) concede that leachate, liquid contaminant from waste, is leaking from the dump into the ground water.  DEQ won't do anything, however, because the seepage rate has slowed over the years.  Not stopped, mind you -- slowed.

The dump is a huge magnet for birds and vermin.  The likely cause of this attraction is failure by past dump managers to properly cover the waste.  The landfill's permit requires all waste to be covered with 6" of soil or equivalent daily.  But until recently, landfill operators routinely ignored this requirement.  Consequently, birds, rats, coyotes, and other scavengers have gotten used to feasting at the dump.

Birds then leave their droppings in the river (pushing harmful E.coli readings above legal limits) and on neighboring crops.  Birds, including hordes of seagulls and starlings, also "rest" on neighboring farmland, eating young plants and contaminating soils.

Scavengers harass neighboring farm animals and infest neighboring homes and farm buildings.  Next-door-neighbor Ramsey McPhillips has killed nearly 50 rats in his farmhouse just this year (2013).  Scavengers also damage other crops including hazelnut trees.

The dump stinks.  Waste Management claims it controls odors at 50 of its 52 Western dump sites -- and Riverbend is one of the two where noxious odors roam free.  Current dump managers blame their predecessors for not properly cutting up the "decks" where trucks park to dump their loads.  In the past, we've been told, the decks were simply covered over with new waste.  Those flat areas, which truck traffic compacts, collect water that fill wells drilled to capture landfill gas.  Gas that can't use the water-filled wells finds other ways to escape from the dump, creating the awful odors that routinely gag neighbors and passersby.

The dump serves Metro, not YC.  Yes, our waste goes into Riverbend, but only about a third of what's dumped at the landfill is generated in Yamhill County.  A full 40% is trucked in from Metro, and NW Oregon counties send their waste to Riverbend.  None of this waste is sorted for recyclables, except what individuals do themselves at home.  If sorting for recycables was required before a load could be dumped, or if the landfill served only Yamhill County, no expansion would ever be required.

The dump is noisy and intrusive.  Current landfill management has changed the hours at the dump, but operations still begin before dawn and end well after dark in winter.  This means bright lights that shine into homes in the neighboring hills and truck noise and beeps that wake neighbors.

The dump means trucks!  Big semis full of garbage pound down our County and city roads, bringing tons of waste (1700 tons daily!) to Riverbend, lining up before dawn.  These trucks commonly spew litter and dust and kick up landfill dust as they leave the dump.  The city of Carlton has already appealed to Metro and ODOT to control the trucks that have damaged sewer and other sub-surface infrastructure in Carlton's downtown.  Lafayette Highway in McMinnville may be next.

The dump will fail in an earthquake.  Our region will experience a magnitude 9.0 -- ie, HUGE -- earthquake within the lifetime of the dump, if not our personal lifetimes.  The existing landfill has NOT been studied for resistance to such a huge earthquake.  In 1993, two cells were studied for vulnerability to a magnitude 7.25 earthquake, a pipsqueak compared to 9.0.  The berm, or wall, that DEQ approved earlier this year, was engineered to only a magnitude 8.5 earthquake, and though that study claimed the wall would withstand such a trembler, experts have found deep flaws with the study.

Waste Management laughs this danger off, telling people that the earthquake will cause so much damage, "no one will worry about the dump."  That is exactly the point:  With no one worrying about gas and leachate breaches at a failed dump, contaminants will escape to pollute the soil, air, and water for years.

This is the wrong location for a dump.  The neighborhood surrounding the landfill has changed dramatically since the dump was originally approved in 1980.  Relying on the understanding that the dump would reach capacity and close in 2014, many homes have been built on small (50-80 acre) farms that contribute to the County's wine and agricultural economies.  In fact, the County has identified more than 500 taxpayers owning land within 3 miles of the dump.

Businesses, many tourist-dependent, have also cropped up.  A prominent B&B overlooks the landfill, and wineries, produce stands, florists, and other businesses are sited within sight, sound, and smell of the dump.  Back in 1980, the neighbors were turkey farms and a go-cart race track.  The Riverbend neighborhood is no longer the type of site that is desirable for a landfill.

Moreover, the original 1980 dump approval called for a maximum height of 7' above ground level at Hwy 18.  Each 20-acre cell of waste was to be returned to farming when full.  By 1993, however, the County had rejected its own conditions and allowed the landfill to grow sky high and to completely fill the parcels zoned PWS (Public Works Safety).  Monitoring was so lax that the first three cells were improperly compacted, allowing contaminated liquids (leachate) to flow out of the landfill into the river and groundwater.

That original approval was, ironically enough, based on a land use exception to State Goal 3, which protects farmland.  Riverbend's first owners convinced the County that farmland was not needed at the site, which was then rezoned to PWS to allow creation of the landfill.  Thirty years later we have come full circle.

Please come to the hearing or email, mail, or fax your opposition to rezoning Riverbend to the County Planning Department by November 7 (hearing will be held at 7:00 PM at McMinnville Civic Hall, corner Baker and 2nd in McMinnville)

fridayk@co.yamhill.or.us

Yamhill County Planning & Development Department

525 NE 4th Street

McMinnville, Oregon 97128

Phone: (503) 434-7516 

Fax: (503) 434-7544

Why You Need to Tell the Planning Commission: No Rezone for Riverbend!

This Thursday, November 7, Waste Management will ask the County Planning Commission to rezone Riverbend Landfill to farmland.  Once rezoned, nothing will prevent landfill expansion now or in the future.

Show up at the Planning Commission meeting to express your opposition to this bizarre rezoning scheme!

WHEN: Thursday, November 7th  at 7:00 PM

WHERE: McMinnville Civic Center-200 Second Street at Baker

Can't attend? We'll miss you but you can still help.  Email Ken Friday (fridayk@co.yamhill.or.us) at the Yamhill County Planning Department. Tell him you want the Planning Commissioners to vote NO on Riverbend's rezoning request.   

Here's what's at stake:  Riverbend says it wants 25 more years of garbage storage on a mere 37 acres, but if the existing dump is rezoned, Riverbend will have the legal right to expand indefinitely onto the hundreds of farm acres adjacent to the dump that Waste Management  already owns.  Moreover, once the dump has expanded, Waste Management can buy the farmland next door and expand again.

Here's why:  State law allows counties to site landfills on exclusive farm use land even though landfills are not agricultural uses. Until two years ago, Yamhill County prohibited dumps on farmland.  But in the fall of 2011, the County amended its Zoning Ordinance to allow existing landfills to expand onto land zoned for farming subject only to site design review.  

Here's the catch:  The existing dump must also be in a farm zone, but Riverbend is in the PWS (Public Works Safety) zone.  Hence the need to rezone a mountain of garbage that can NEVER be farmed from PWS to Exclusive Farm Use.

Waste Management (Riverbend's Texas-based corporate owner) is telling everyone that the rezoning is no big deal because the County still has to approve specific expansion plans.  The trouble is the County can't deny the expansion once the rezoning is approved -- it can only require expansion to meet the very basic requirements of a site design review.  The Zoning Ordinance specifically prohibits the County from requiring the dump to meet tougher standards.

In 2008 Riverbend sought a 96-acre landfill expansion that would be 100 feet higher than what the dump is now.  When the County applied site design review back then, the only problem the County found was that the proposed dump was too high.  The County had no problem approving 96 additional acres of garbage, including moving a salmon-bearing creek!  The County didn't deny expansion then; don't expect the County to nix anything now.

Rezoning puts all the farmland owned by Waste Management at risk, despite the County's own Comprehensive Plan goals, which require farmland protection.  Decades down the road, Waste Management -- or any other corporation that might buy the dump -- will be allowed by the Zoning Ordinance  to continue expanding onto all contiguous EFU acreage the corporation owns.  

The dump is an eyesore, an environmental catastrophe waiting to happen, and a health risk, all on the edge of McMinnville.  YAMHILL COUNTY DESERVES BETTER.  Tell the Planning Commission to vote NO on rezoning!