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!

Farm Bureau, Friends of YC Dinners Coming Up

It may be too late to dine but not to hear the good news about what our local Farm Bureau and Friends of Yamhill County have been up to.  Attend their dinners this week!  Learn about GMO at the Farm Bureau meeting and about agro-tourism at FYC.

Farm Bureau dinner:  Saturday, November 2, at 5:30 at Golden Valley Brew Pub, Third and Johnson in McMinnville.  Contact Marie Schmidt at mschmidt@linfield.edu for more information.

Friends of Yamhill County:  Monday, November 4, at Community Plate, Third Street in McMinnville.  Contact Ilsa Perse at ilsap@earthlink.net for more info.

Nov 7th Planning Commission Meeting Looms Large

As noted below ("Riverbend Expansion Is Back!"), the Yamhill County Planning Commission will consider rezoning the dump to farmland at its November 7th meeting.

Absurd as it may sound, this is the first -- and the most crucial -- step toward expanding the landfill.

Here's what's at stake:  Riverbend says it wants 25 years on 37 acres (bad enough, right?) but what Riverbend will get if the dump is rezoned is the legal right to expand indefinitely so long as it owns farmland adjacent to the dump.

Here's why:  State law allows counties to permit landfills on exclusive farmland even though landfills are not agricultural uses.  Until two years ago, Yamhill County actually prohibited dumps on farmland.  But in the fall of 2011, the County Zoning Ordinance was amended to allow existing landfills to expand onto farmland subject only to site design review.  The catch is that the existing dump must also be on farmland.

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.

If you were around in 2008 and remember the gi-normous expansion Riverbend sought then (96 acres!), you probably also remember that except for the height (which Waste Management thought should be twice what it is today), that expansion passed site design review.  Don't expect the County to nix anything smaller.
 

The Planning Commission meets Thursday, November 7, at 7:00 PM at McMinnville Civic Hall, 200 2nd Street at Baker in McMinnville.  Attend in person or send written comments to brandtm@county.yamhill.or.us -- or both!

Important Meetings Regarding Riverbend!

Two important meetings regarding the future of Riverbend Landfill are coming up in the next two weeks!

Mark your calendars and SHOW UP!  This is our chance to change the future of the landfill.

Expansion: 

On November 7, 2013, Waste Management will ask the Yamhill County Planning Commission to rezone the land beneath the dump to EF-80 -- farmland.  Although this sounds absurd, this is a necessary step that will allow the dump to expand!

But it is far from a minor, preliminary step.  Once the land is rezoned, the only thing standing in the way of expansion will be a site design review by the County Planning Department.  The huge expansion proposed back in 2008 passed site design review with only one change -- after a public outcry, the planners imposed a maximum height on the landfill. 

We don't expect height to be an issue this time.  But we do expect Waste Management to seek expansion of at least 37 acres, which means 25 more years of trucks, noise, stink, birds, lights, litter, and uncontrolled waste dumped on the banks of our river.  And the rezoning they are seeking would give them the legal right to expand onto a minimum of 87 acres.

See related story "Riverbend Expansion Is Back!" below dated Sunday, October 20, for more details.  Comment below or contact the Stop the Dump Coalition with your questions.

Meeting November 7, 2013, at 7:00 PM at McMinnville Civic Hall, 200 NE 2nd Street near Baker in McMinnville.

Air Quality Permit:

On Wednesday, October 23, 2013, DEQ and Waste Management host the semi-annual Air Quality Meeting.  Learn about changes to the dump's air permit and also about DEQ's new Odor Nuisance Strategy.  For details, see story "Air Quality Meeting Wednesday October 23" immediately below.

Meeting October 23, 2013, at 6:00 (pizza) and 7:00 (meeting itself) at McMinnville Senior Center, 2250 NE McDaniel Lane in McMinnville.