Newberg Graphic Online

Landfill critics file LUBA appeal

Land use — Appellants a coalition of opponents that includes industry groups and quasi-governmental agencies

• By: David Sale  
• Published: 1/13/2010 11:08:10 AM

   Opponents of the Riverbend landfill expansion, approved in November by the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners, have made good on their threat to appeal the decision to the state — and they’re not doing so alone.
   In addition to neighboring property owners, the appeal’s backers include the Willamette Valley Wineries association (plus individual McMinnville-area winemakers), the chairman of McMinnville’s Chamber of Commerce, members of the Yamhill County Farm Bureau, Willamette Riverkeepers and the Yamhill Soil and Water Conservation District.
   “We have a fairly long history of commenting on land use and speaking against decisions that would adversely affect resource land,” said Tim Stieber, executive director of Soil and Water Conservation District. “That said, I’ve been here 10 years and this is the first time I’ve seen us take legal action over a county land use decision.”
   The seven-member elected board of directors for the district (part of a quasi-governmental state agency with branches in each Oregon county) were moved to do so by the scale of the decision, Stieber said, after holding a special session on the matter.
   “In this case, we just felt that the impacts were avoidable, that there are viable alternatives,” he said. “(Riverbend) has become a large industrial area, a regional landfill, but that wasn’t the vision sold to the public when it opened 20 years ago. A regional site deserves a regional solution — like shipment to Coffin Butte or Arlington.”
   According to the appeal, prepared by attorney William Kabeiseman, the expansion approval ignored evidence detailing the negative impacts of landfill operations and ignore evidence that Riverbend is not the only viable solid waste disposal site available to Yamhill County, which (he argues) should disqualify the decision from meeting the necessary state land-use goal exemption to expand onto agricultural-zoned land nearby.
   A similar view was expressed by Erin Rainey, a member of the county’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee, who also joined the appeal efforts.
   “All these groups had valid reasons for opposing the expansion, but they were not taken into account,” Rainey said of the opposition to the land use decision. “Instead, we heard that the most important issue, from the commissioners’ perspective, was keeping rates low for businesses.”
   Even at the risk of a rate increase, Rainey argued, the long-term benefits of developing alternative disposal outweighed the costs.
   “We do not need to be responsible for accepting waste from other counties to keep rates reasonably low,” she said, pointing to last year’s alternatives study. “Why do we need to be a regional landfill site? The alternative technologies that are out there would be easier to implement for a smaller, Yamhill County-only waste stream.”
   The appeal has been made to the Land Use Board of Appeals, a branch of the state Department of Land Conservation and Development. Such reviews are generally a lengthy process and supporters say it could be a year before the board reaches a verdict.
   Riverbend’s parent company, Waste Management, in a previous press release, stated that the expansion is in the public interest, that the company adheres to state and federal environmental regulations and is confident the approval will withstand appeal.

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