Lane County is exploring whether to put CleanLane at Short Mountain Landfill after losing its first-choice Goshen permit fight. The county’s waste and recycling diversion project was originally supposed to open this year, but the site change is now part of a new hearing battle.
At Thursday’s hearing, Wendie Kellington of the Lane Garbage and Recycling Association argued the county’s plan is not a government project at all. She said, “What we have here is a proposal for a fully independent, long-term, separately financed, privately operated, revenue-producing, processing commodity and energy enterprise, with independent inputs, assets, duties, controls, utilities and public visitor functions that have nothing to do with the landfill.”
Goshen permit fight
The county’s original plan in Goshen was tied up for more than a year in a land-use battle that reached the Oregon Supreme Court. Courts and land use officials denied the previous special use permit after finding the proposed facility incompatible with the zoning in Goshen.
That setback is what pushed Lane County to look at Short Mountain Landfill as another possible site. The CleanLane project includes methane extraction, recycling diversion and a planned visitors center, and the landfill already receives waste from the Lane County area.
Short Mountain Landfill objections
The Lane Garbage and Recycling Association is fighting the landfill-site proposal. Sanipac had raised similar concerns during the land use process for the Goshen location, and the same basic dispute is now back in front of hearing officials.
Wendie Kellington also said the county should be required to build 460 parking spots instead of the planned 42 spots. She raised concerns about the project’s water and electricity use, and argued the county’s contract with Bulk Handling Systems turns the project into a commercial industrial complex rather than an allowable government project.
Mason Leavitt on landfill use
Mason Leavitt, a GIS Analyst and Programs Coordinator with Beyond Toxics, gave the opposite reading of the project. He said Short Mountain Landfill is one of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters in Lane County and added, “It is a source that is completely within governmental control.”
Leavitt said the facility would safely extract a large share of methane before it enters the landfill and leaks into the atmosphere. He also said treated organic material would be used in place of soil as a layer to cover the landfill, while Bulk Handling Systems would sort recyclables out from trash.
He said, “That means that we get to bring our public values into how we run and operate this facility, unlike a private facility, which is usually beholden to shareholders.”
Lane County still has to decide whether Short Mountain Landfill can work as the new site for CleanLane. The hearing showed the county now has two competing frames to resolve: a landfill-linked public project on one side, and a commercial facility challenge on the other.
