What’s better than a landfill? An even bigger one, according to those who run the Coffin Butte Landfill, who are currently aiming for approval from Benton County to expand the landfill.
The county’s solid waste advisory committee endorsed the expansion during their meeting on Tuesday night. The county planning commission plans to hold an online public hearing at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 2.
Republic Services operates the landfill, while Valley Landfills own the property in question. They’re seeking to gain a conditional use permit to expand the landfill along the southern border, closing and covering Coffin Butte Road west of Highway 99W. Additionally, two leachate ponds south of the road would be relocated. A new, private service road would also be built on the southern side of the expansion.
Those who live in the nearby area can already see and smell the landfill under the right conditions. One large concern includes the fact that the available airspace in the current section of the landfill would be filled in the next four years, with the new one filling in roughly 12 years.
Theoretically, the landfill could take waste for the next 30 years, but after that, along with the next four years, is where the real trouble lies. The operators of the landfill claim that four years isn’t enough time to build a new section of landfill — so the question of the day is what will happen between now and then?
The landfill provides services as a “regional” landfill, serving Benton, Linn, Lincoln, Polk, and Marion Counties, with Portland trash also occasionally making its way in. Currently, only 12% of the landfill is populated by Benton County trash.
According to Hasso Hering, a local who runs his own blog and former editor of the Albany Gazette, says there’s one major question left to ask. He said, “Even if the expansion is approved, what happens when Coffin Butte is full? We have less than a generation to figure that out. Thirty years can go by in a flash.”
By Ethan Hauck
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