County officials will soon consider a landfill expansion, and we’re becoming increasingly concerned. It’s not that we have an opinion – but we worry the right questions aren’t being asked.
First, let’s catch up on the story. Coffin Butte landfill operator Republic Services says the dump rests on 740 acres, and that only 178 acres are currently permitted for landfill space. Republic sought a conditional use permit to expand the landfill back in 2021, which the County’s Solid Waste Advisory Council favored, but the Planning Commission ultimately rejected unanimously. At the time, Republic said the current dump only had about 15 years of capacity remaining.
Since the application’s denial, the County’s three elected commissioners have been preparing for Republic to reapply. They okayed spending about six figures on a facilitated workgroup called Benton County Talks Trash, or BCTT, that ultimately produced a report – it’s literally about 1,000 pages.
The report’s scope swings from recitals of the dump’s history to pointed criticisms of the county’s lack of oversight and monitoring of the facility to date. And, it covers plenty of territory in between – but it doesn’t tackle some of the bigger issues head-on.
Now, fast forward to last week when Republic announced plans to reapply for an expansion – they’ve booked a pre-application meeting with County officials and have scheduled three open meetings for the public to attend. The first of those meetings happens tonight – the info is below – and bear in mind, these are company hosted meetings.
And this is where we worry. On behalf of its constituents, we think County officials need to be asking tougher and plainer questions – and then posting the answers in a manner that is clear, complete, objective, and skim-able. Yes, link to the 1,000 page report, but nobody should expect an everyday resident to read the thing.
Anyhow, with all this activity, we think we speak for a quiet majority of folks that just want some straightforward answers to basic questions, like these…
Who gets hurt, if anyone, if the landfill is expanded?
Human health and safety should be a central question – so from large to small, most likely to least likely – what are the risks associated with the landfill, and its possible expansion?
Who is at risk? If the landfill is expanded, will folks living near the dump be more impacted than they are now? What are the health and safety risks for people within one mile, three miles, five miles and even 10 miles or more? To what extent can these risks be eliminated or not?
Livability impacts?
It has become an accepted norm to mock and even villainize folks that are concerned about new housing, services and infrastructure moving into their neighborhoods – some of that criticism is warranted, and some not. In this instance, we think residents in the area should be concerned, and should have some sway with the decision-making. Undeniably, the landfill is smelly, noisy, dirty, and possibly toxic.
The facility is decades old and located in the County’s outskirts. These are the same outskirts that many folks have moved into as the area’s population has grown. Some have said that the people living there knew where they were moving, but others have said that doesn’t mean they signed up for the landfill to expand. So, if the landfill is permitted to expand, will the impacts to the surrounding community increase, and if so, how?
Monitoring, health and safety and the environment?
Some have made the case that the dump isn’t compliant with its current health and safety obligations. One of the findings in that 1,000-page report we mentioned earlier is that the county hasn’t sufficiently monitored the site.
The view has regularly been expressed that Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality and the federal Environmental Protection Agency don’t prioritize monitoring the Coffin Butte landfill, mainly because they don’t have the resources.
The site does produce leachate and greenhouse gas emissions, and so forth – so we would ask, could this facility impact the area’s environment and wildlife? How, and to what extent? What can be done to mitigate those impacts? How can those mitigations be monitored? Are there mitigations sufficient to warrant approving an expansion or not?
Who will monitor and enforce the rules?
Would the folks living here, locally, have more confidence that the Coffin Butte operation is being adequately monitored if the County also had its own monitoring regimen going forward?
How much would it cost the County to monitor Coffin Butte’s performance and impacts? How would the County pass those costs onto the company operating the site?
If the County were to approve an expansion, should it condition that approval on the company agreeing to abide by County fines and even shutdown orders if there are violations of the rules?
What’s are the alternatives?
The common refrain is the trash has to go somewhere. But the vast majority of incoming waste going into Coffin Butte comes from other counties throughout Oregon. So, could those counties or groups of counties shoulder their own loads, and have their own facilities? Is it fair that just one county, our county, would take an entire region’s trash?
Another common refrain is that Benton County consumers would pay more for trash collection if there wasn’t a local dump – so we wonder how much more? For instance, what are ratepayers paying outside of Benton County to have their trash hauled here? What do other ratepayers pay nationwide when their trash gets hauled a considerable distance?
We’d imagine that you, our reader, may have some questions of your own – we live in an area filled with scientists and environmental experts – so please email us.
The largest question, as we see it now
Benton County is comprised of 675 square miles, so not everyone will feel impacted by a landfill out in the boonies – but there are folks living past that last stoplight north of Corvallis, and how they’re treated says something about all of us. And along those lines are also future generations that will be impacted by whatever is decided now.
And, once all the questions are answered about expanding the facility, we suspect there should be one primary question – what is best for the people of Benton County now, and in the future?
IF YOU’RE INTERESTED:
These meetings are being hosted by Republic Services, which is the company that will be seeking the conditional use permit to expand the landfill.
Thursday, June 27, 5 to 7 pm, CH2M Hill Alumni Center (Oregon State University), Willamette Room, 725 SW 26th St., Corvallis
Friday, June 28, 7 to 8:30 am, Philomath City Hall (Council Chambers), 980 Applegate St., Philomath
Tuesday, July 9, 6 to 7:30 pm, Virtual Webinar, register at coffinbutte@republicservices.com or at Coffin-Butte-Virtual-Meeting
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