The Metro Council on Thursday directed its staff to come up with a policy that evaluates the capacity of landfills available to this region to guide decisions about where the region’s waste should be sent.
The resolution, introduced by Councilor Bob Stacey, came about as a result of many concerns raised by farmers, business owners and residents in Yamhill County during the past few years about a proposed expansion of Riverbend Landfill outside McMinnville. The landfill, which is owned by Waste Management, Inc., receives about 29 percent of the Metro region’s garbage.
The Metro region’s garbage makes up about 48 percent of the incoming volume of waste at Riverbend. Waste Management projects that without an expansion, the landfill will run out of room for more waste in two years and is seeking approvals to add another 15 years of capacity to the landfill.
In introducing his resolution, Stacey noted the ongoing efforts of Metro’s Solid Waste Roadmap program to look at better ways to manage garbage and other waste. “If we’re going to seriously discuss reducing waste, why should we invest in more landfill capacity for the region?” he asked.
Ramsey McPhillips, a farmer who owns land near the landfill and has been active in efforts to close the landfill, expressed support for the resolution and encouraged the council to take a hard look at the environmental effects on the surrounding land and the adjacent South Yamhill River. He cited concerns with the location of landfill in a floodplain and the presence of zinc, lead and other potentially harmful materials in nearby soil and groundwater.
Sid Friedman, a former Yamhill County planning commissioner who is a leader of land use watchdog group Friends of Yamhill County, also lent his support to Stacey’s proposal. Friedman said Oregon already has hundreds of years of landfill capacity.
“Don’t drive the expansion of Riverbend,” he urged the council.
Mike Dewey, a lobbyist for Waste Management, told the council his client did not oppose Stacey’s proposal and acknowledged that there is plenty of landfill capacity in the region. But, he said, “for people who want to close the landfill, this proposal probably isn’t the place to do it.”
Dewey explained the process Waste Management is already undertaking with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to apply for the permits needed to expand the landfill and that DEQ has been monitoring the landfill, and re-issuing permits for its continued operations, for more than 20 years.
“There have been plenty of opportunities to close to the landfill," Dewey said.
If the Metro Council were to decide to stop sending any garbage to Riverbend, nearly all of that waste would be sent to Columbia Ridge Landfill, located south of Arlington, about 150 miles east of Portland, per an existing agreement with Waste Management. That agreement obligates 90 percent of the region’s wet waste (the garbage that remains after recycling and recovery efforts) to be sent to a Waste Management-owned landfill until the end of 2019. Waste Management also owns and operates Columbia Ridge.
Much of the waste that gets sent to Riverbend is collected from homes and businesses on the west side of the region, and diverting that waste to Columbia Ridge could pose increased transportation costs that are ultimately borne by garbage customers. That raised concerns from Councilor Kathryn Harrington, who represents communities in northern and western Washington County.
“I’m concerned about hearing a refrain, after today’s action, as to ‘Why are you doing this? Why now? And don’t raise rates just because you can,’” Harrington said. She noted that leaders from the Beaverton and Washington County sent letters expressing concern about the potential effects of diverting waste away from Riverbend on garbage customers in their communities.
Harrington offered an amendment to the resolution, which was unanimously agreed to by the council, to ensure that Metro looks at capacity at existing landfills – and not just proposals for new landfills or landfill expansions – so as to create a “more level playing field” in evaluating all available landfills, not just those proposing to create new capacity. The resolution, with Harrington’s amendment, passed unanimously.
Metro staff will now work to craft policy language for the Metro Council to codify in its solid waste ordinances that takes landfill capacity into consideration when approving future licenses for garbage haulers and transfer stations to manage and transport the region’s waste. Metro staff must provide the recommended policy language to the Metro Council by June 30, 2016.