The political hot-potato that is the Coffin Butte landfill has returned. On Friday, county officials reported receiving an application from Republic Services to expand the dump.
This will be the company’s second attempt at an approval in three years. Back in 2021, public sentiment was hugely negative at the prospect of an expansion – but the County’s Solid Waste Advisory Council favored it. In the end, the Planning Commission unanimously rejected the proposal, and Republic filed an appeal, which they dropped before it reached the Benton County Board of Commissioners, or BOC.
The three commissioners, being elected officials, have been catching serious heat from dump expansion opponents since the company’s first application. Many of the opponents have been environmentalists, biologists and a variety of other scientists that live within Benton County. And there is an informal group that has quietly organized to seek the recall of any commissioner that may vote for an expansion in the future.
However, knowing they may be hearing the matter on appeal, none of the County’s elected commissioners has been willing to publicly offer any opinion about the landfill – and that silence may be leading some to jump to conclusions.
What Republic is saying
On Friday, The Advocate received a press release from Republic acknowledging they have applied for a Conditional Use Permit.
The company’s release also said, “Coffin Butte Landfill is requesting an expansion that will allow it to place waste on approximately 70 acres of land south of Coffin Butte Road. The expansion request is 50 percent smaller than what was proposed in 2021, and will add six years of life to the Landfill. The proposal leaves Coffin Butte Road intact and includes $650,000 worth of improvements to the thoroughfare, including adding a left turn lane for disposal trucks and bike lanes in both directions.” The company believes the dump has 12 remaining years of life as is, and a total of 18 years if the expansion is approved.
What’s next
According to the county, its Community Development Department will start with a completeness check, which they describe as a review to make sure the application has all the required information and supporting documents. They said statute permits them 30 days to finish this part of the process.
“If the application is deemed complete, the review process will start, and the County will complete the process within 150 days. If the application is incomplete, the applicant will have 30 days to provide the additional information,” according to County spokesman Cory Grogan.
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