Our valley is unique
As a fourth-generation farmer living on the parcel of land south of Riverbend Landfill, I am adamantly opposed to expanding the current dump. McMinnville has shouldered its share of the burden when it comes to trash disposal. Making the dump larger is foolish - better ways are available. We are stewards of the land. Creating an even more enormous problem is not the best use of the land. Expanding will destroy farmland, wetlands, downstream salmon habitat, reduce air and water quality and devalue property.
Moving creeks will change the footprint of Yamhill County and affect Oregon's future generations. I am against the expansion because I believe it is not in the best interest of local people; it is in the interest of out-of-state corporations that do not care what happens to those who make their homes here. This valley is unique rural America - but not with a colossal-sized landfill spoiling the landscape and water systems. Our responsibility is to leave this land in the best condition we can for generations to come.
Carl Bergstrom
McMinnville
Make right decision
The Yamhill County commissioners will hold a hearing on the proposed Riverbend Landfill expansion at 1 p.m. Thursday, Mar. 19, in Room 103 of the McMinnville Community Center at 600 N.E. Evans Street.
The commissioners will have the opportunity to say No to the expansion and to leave a legacy of change for the better for the future of the county. It is a crime against nature to have a huge, regional landfill located on prime farmland bordering a river. Additionally, do we really want to pass on the inevitable cleanup of this dump to the next generation?
The landfill is a travesty that can never be explained away or justified, no matter how much money is involved on either side of this issue. The landfill and its proposed expansion is a moral and ethical issue. The commissioners' decision should not be based on matters of short-sighted interests and greed that exploit the earth. Their decision needs to be based on what is right for the earth and for our children. Now is the time to step up to the plate and make a positive difference.
Patricia L. McGhehey
McMinnville
Find alternative
I would like to respectfully voice my opposition to the expansion of the Riverbend landfill and request that our Yamhill County Commissioners reject the application to double the size of the landfill. My reasons are as follows.
Landfills are outdated technology, proven to be incredibly dangerous and hazardous. We have one that already contains 7 million tons of waste. No one knows how much hazardous material the site already contains, and there is no way to prevent these hazardous substances from inevitably leaking from the site into the Yamhill River and surrounding agricultural properties. As a result, we will eventually be faced with the expensive chore of dealing with the cleanup of this site. It makes no sense to increase this problem.
There are far better technologies for dealing with solid waste that are proven to be sound and that use the garbage to generate energy. Waste Management is already using these technologies at other sites in other states.
If allowed to double in size, the expanded landfill will become a serious eyesore and a continued source of repugnant odor that will have a significant economic impact on the agricultural and tourist industries in our county.
The best solution is to use this site as a transfer station for shipping our local waste via rail to an existing approved site already owned by Waste Management in Eastern Oregon. This will have the additional benefit of eliminating all the daily truck traffic currently bringing waste in from Portland. I ask that the County Commissioners deny the request to double the size of the Riverbend Landfill next to the South Yamhill River and work with the residents of Yamhill County to find an environmentally sound and community-friendly alternative solution to our waste disposal needs.
Robert Brittan
McMinnville
Be active, informed
I am part of Waste Not of Yamhill County, a group formed both to oppose expansion of Riverbend Landfill and to promote waste disposal alternatives.
Even the best-run landfills pose environmental problems. Ours is in rain country on a river that has reached flood stage six of the past 10 years. We want the existing landfill to close in 2014 as originally scheduled and have our waste deposited in a better-sited landfill or, better yet, converted into usable fuel or energy.
When Yamhill County authorized the current landfill, neighbors were assured they would not see, hear or smell it. As anyone who drives Highway 18 - or who lives along highways 47 or 99W, where garbage-filled semis pass 70 times a day - can attest, the landfill has not lived up to this promise. The neighborhood also has changed, with new farms, businesses and homes within sight of the landfill.
The current site may support the current landfill, but it cannot support the industrial-sized, mile-long mountain Riverbend wants to add.
Some fear their garbage rates will increase 250 percent if Riverbend closes on schedule, but Riverbend's zone change application states that even hauling waste out of county will raise rates only 12 percent. Waste Not knows another landfill operator actively competing for Yamhill County businesses' garbage, at today's rates - no rate increase. This competitor's landfill sites are more than a mile from the nearest waterway, and its trucks use clean biofuels.
Waste Management Inc., Riverbend's owner, builds greener waste-to-energy plants in other counties and actively promotes zero-waste goals elsewhere. Why not here?
True NIMBYs want garbage "out of sight, out of mind." We want Yamhill County residents to be active and informed. Know where your garbage goes! Visit www.wastenotofyamhillcounty.org for details.
Susan Watkins
McMinnville
Shrink footprint
The recent emissions of noxious odors from Riverbend Landfill are a symptom of a problem that cannot be solved by bigger collection wells. The odors represent a solid waste system that is outdated and harmful to the environment. The witch's brew that makes up landfill gas is far more dangerous than it is smelly.
Methane makes up around 50 percent of landfill gas. It is a very potent greenhouse gas, at least 20 times worse for the environment than carbon dioxide, the next-most-plentiful component in landfill gas. Methane does not smell. As with auto emissions, what you cannot smell is worse than what you can smell.
An enormous amount of methane escapes from all landfills. Riverbend and its Texas owner, Waste Management Inc., are marketing the electricity from landfill-created methane as a "green" alternative to fossil fuels. It is not a green alternative; significant amounts of methane will still escape into the environment. Advocating for dump expansion in order to generate electricity is like advocating for destroying mountaintops to produce "clean coal."
Because burning methane is such a dirty and inefficient source of power, sophisticated plants are often built to convert methane to natural gas. This is being done at the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill in King County, Wash.
We need to get off foreign oil and use our trash to create power through one of the many innovative waste management systems that are coming on line around the country. These innovative systems do not require the creation of a mile-long mountain of garbage, as is currently being planned, in order to harvest a questionable amount of a dangerous greenhouse gas.
We will shrink our carbon footprint when we stop dumping garbage.
Ilsa Perse
Carlton
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