The Riverbend Landfill application to destroy farmland took a major hit when Zia Engineering recommended to the Solid Waste Advisory Committee that Waste Management and the county work to replace the landfill with modern green alternatives.
The land use law is clear — Riverbend may not expand and destroy more farmland unless there is no other option for our solid waste disposal needs. Although not expressly stated, the Zia report confirms the Yamhill County Planning Commission’s unanimous 7-0 vote to deny the expansion application.
Identifying and recommending the use of alternatives is the legal death knell of the “need” argument used by Riverbend’s lawyers to justify the massive farmland-destroying expansion. This report has far-reaching ramifications for Yamhill County’s future.
Undoubtedly, the commissioners will now vote to deny the application, Waste Management will spend the next three years fighting in the courts to win back the right to use the landfill, but meanwhile, a host of new, competing companies will rush in to bid on our immensely lucrative non-land filling solid waste system. Even our own WOW will be there at the bidding table.
A Texas corporation will no longer rule the roost in our county — unless, of course, they win in a bidding war for our garbage. Denial of the application will make Waste Management fight to be the lowest solid waste cost provider and take away their monopoly status here in Yamhill County. How American.
Only if the landfill application is denied will the county then be able to issue an RFP to solicit and prepare for these new competing technologies. Approval could very well result in a court overturning their vote in three years, leaving Yamhill County with neither a landfill nor an alternative. Denial is the only commission vote that keeps the door open for either legal outcome.
Ramsey McPhillips
McMinnville
Require concession on landfill
It seems that after recent developments, Waste Management Corporation’s plan to expand our Riverbend Landfill into a huge regional dumpsite is likely. Who can say no to power generation for 2,000 homes?
What has not been mentioned is that the company is also applying for an expanded DEQ permit as well. Carbon monoxide emissions will be increasing from 99 tons per year to 249 tons, nitrogen oxides from 39 tons per year to 146 tons yearly and excessive amounts of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) just to name a few.
Waste Management spent close to a million dollars to defeat a measure that limited landfill expansions within a certain distance of rivers. Now, when they sensed that their expansion plans (profits) may be in jeopardy because of local opposition to this massive regional dumpsite, they are shelling out $10 million to put in this power generation plant to smooth the way. This is a smoke screen, literally and figuratively.
Hired consultants on this issue suggest a compromise solution with citizens and businesses.
We have a suggestion. For Waste Management to be allowed to continue operating their cash cow indefinitely at the expense of our skyways and byways here in McMinnville, we should require a concession. This corporation should be expected to pay for the annual property taxes of all farms, residences and businesses within a ten mile radius of their facility.
It is the very least they could do to offset the decreased property values and quality of life of those affected by this expansion. It seems only fair.
Tammy Devine
McMinnville
Dump the dump
Many Yamhill County residents are appalled and infuriated at Riverbend Landfill’s application to expand and dispose of garbage for another 30 years. Imagine the size and impact it will have. It is an atrocity now.
Siting a dump beside a river on prime farmland, near a city and along a major highway, was a mistake 30 years ago. Enough is enough.
Riverbend is now touting the gas-powered electricity it can generate. There is no mention of the considerable toxicity of burned garbage gas, nor does anyone know all the combinations of poisons collecting in the giant garbage mound.
The county planning department held a thorough public hearing this summer on the proposed expansion of Riverbend. The department received volumes of written and hours of spoken testimony of well-thought arguments against the expansion. The county’s own Citizens Solid Waste Advisory Board, the Farm Bureau, the Yamhill Soil and Water Conservation District, the tourist and wine industries and many, many others spoke eloquently against the expansion and its incompatibility with our best interests.
Expansion into the scenic and productive countryside for the sake of cheap garbage rates and electricity would be done at the expense of the health, safety and livability of a vital part of our community. Is that really acceptable?
Yamhill County has far more to offer than a bargain dump site for Portland-Metro. Our commissioners make the final decision. Let’s encourage them to dump the dump.
Mike Westphal
McMinnville
Ask for greener technology
Zia Engineering presented its report Wednesday to the county’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee. Zia, commissioned by the Board of Commissioners to investigate alternatives to Riverbend Landfill, made no recommendation. But Zia called on Waste Management Inc., Riverbend’s Texas-based owner, to work with the county and interested citizens to find ways to implement alternatives locally.
The report may be most valuable for its review of alternative technologies employed by WMI in other jurisdictions. WMI will be converting waste to energy with plasma arc technology (perhaps the cleanest method out there) in Bend and 180 other landfills they operate throughout the U.S. WMI also has invested in biomass conversion technology that converts organic waste to gasoline.
These alternative technologies dispose of solid waste without the environmental and economic threats to surrounding residential and farming communities, McMinnville area air, or the South Yamhill River posed by a large landfill. There is no reason WMI cannot implement one of these processes here.
We recognize that new technologies are not cost-free. But, according to the Sept. 24 Portland Tribune, WMI is earning $5 million from the state in energy tax credits toward the $10 million methane-burning plant it is installing along Highway 18 — 50 percent of the cost, before profits from sale of electricity are factored in. A plasma arc or biomass plant might earn similar credits.
Under Oregon law, the county may approve a zone change from farm use to another use only when “a demonstrated need for the proposed use or activity” exists. Clearly, if other, more compatible alternatives exist, there is no “need” for a landfill.
Speaking as president of Waste Not of Yamhill County, we echo Zia: Let’s ask WMI to step up to the plate and bring cleaner, greener waste disposal technology to our county.
Susan Watkins
McMinnville
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