For the second time in just over three years, the Benton County Planning Commission has voted unanimously to reject an application to further expand the Coffin Butte Landfill just north of Adair Village. Like the last time, the vote was unanimous.
This proposal was for about half the expansion previously applied for. But in the end, public sentiment and political will seem to have shifted towards closing the facility altogether. In passing new state laws to better monitor the facility’s methane emissions, State Rep. Sarah Finger McDonalds talked openly about planning for closure in the future.
Trash hauler, Republic Services, owns the dump. There have been massive methane leaks from the facility, which has motivated the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to investigate Republic. There have also been numerous health and safety revelations from current and former employees at the facility.
In April, the County’s planning staff released a report recommending the Commission reject Republic’s application for the expansion. They said the applicant had not sufficiently addressed findings concerning noise and odors. They also said Republic had not adequately addressed the facility’s impact on adjacent residents, businesses and farms.
Over 5,000 pages of written testimony had been submitted concerning the proposed expansion, almost all of it in opposition. Given Corvallis is a science and engineering town, much of the citizen testimony was highly technical – more so than what may have otherwise been expected.
Signups for oral testimony were numerous, and the County had to add hearings to accommodate it all.
Then in June, Republic submitted new information and materials to the County, and the planning staff revered their prior findings, and recommended the Commission, contingent on 25 conditions, approve the application. The conditions included restrictions on noise, odor and lighting. They also included protections of area groundwater and wetlands.
Fast forwarding to last night, July 22, during the Planning Commission’s deliberations it became quickly clear that the commissioner’s would be having none of it. The preponderance of unaddressed and even unmitigable impacts was too much.
Commissioner’s cited impacts that are both current and foreseeable. The role of irreversible water quality and chemical impacts on people and adjacent livestock and farming operations was discussed.
It was observed that hired farmhands in the area have been leaving their positions in recent years, citing not being able to withstand the increasing odors from the landfill as the reason they’re quitting.
The noise of further construction blasting and ongoing landfill operations, and the operator’s continued health and safety violations and environmental violations were all cited in the Commission’s deliberations. With the disclosure that fires have occurred at the dump, concerns have arisen that neither Adair Village nor the County has the capacity to respond and prevent a fire from spreading to adjacent forests. The nightmare scenario would be fire departments trying to respond at the landfill during hot and dry and windy conditions over the summer, while potentially needing to respond to fires throughout the County.
What’s next
The Benton County Planning Commission will meet next week to finalize their decision with a formalized finding of facts. This will be the meeting that makes the decision legal. The public can attend that meeting, which is scheduled for 6 pm, Tuesday, July 29.
After that, Republic will have 14 days to file an appeal to be heard by the Benton County Board of Commissioners. The last time Republic was denied, they filed an appeal, later withdrawing it and subsequently filing the new application that has just been denied.
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