Dispatch Guest Editorial 8/25/00

For the last three months the County Council Public Works Committee has been looking at amendments to the update of the Pierce County Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP). I would be remiss if I didn't say that the chair of this committee, Council member Herald Moss, has been outstanding. His commitment to give the SWMP update a true hearing is refreshing. He has listened, expressed his appreciation for our participation, and truly has an understanding of the issues.

With that said, I would like to talk about one of these amendments. Amendment # 4S, sponsored by Council Member Ken Madsen, requires a landfill owner to be up front about their plans to accept out-of-county waste as they go through the permitting process. Amendment # 4S, which CROWD supports, reads:

"No municipal solid waste landfill shall accept waste from outside the Pierce County solid waste management systems without addressing the impacts of that action in the facility's conditional use permit, reviewed by the Pierce County Hearing Examiner, and the solid waste handling permit, reviewed by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. The review shall include impacts to the environment, public health and safety, traffic, and expected life of the landfill, and shall be conducted as a public process."

One might rightfully assume that a landfill company planning to accept out of county waste would be honest and forthright in their permitting process. They should discuss how the acceptance of out-of-county waste would effect the environment, public health and safety, the life of the landfill, traffic, and so on. If that were the case, this amendment would not be necessary.

In LRI's Environmental Impact Statement there was no mention of out-of-county waste. In fact in response to the question of how much out-of-county waste LRI would accept at this landfill, the Hearing Examiner wrote:

"Out-of-county waste is not anticipated to be accepted at the proposed landfill and is not included as part of the proposal. Therefore, the effects thereof were not evaluated."

So, there you have it. This landfill was proposed by LRI to meet the needs of Pierce County's garbage and not to be a regional dump. One can only wonder why LRI is so opposed to Amendment #4S. LRI's representative has attended the last four Public Works Committee meetings and has:

§ Threatened to raise rates so many times I ran out of fingers to keep track;

§ Threatened to sue Pierce County if they pass this amendment to the SWMP;

§ Threatened not to negotiate a contract with Pierce County and;

§ Threatened to ignore such an amendment and force the county to sue them.

WAIT JUST ONE MINUTE HERE! Is our garbage company suggesting they will IGNORE THE LAW!?

I guess they are. Why am I surprised? Why should you be surprised? When Senate Bill 5729 passed in April of 1999 prohibiting this landfill over our sole source aquifer what did LRI do? They IGNORED THE LAW. First, they ignored the fact that they did not have their site development permit and started working on the site anyway. Then they ignored the provisions in their permit that prohibited landfill construction until the Health Department had approved LRI's final documents and their quality control manual (These documents were not even submitted until May). And they ignored the fact that they did not have legal access to the site off SR 161 until the Department of Transportation put up barriers.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department (TPCHD) is the lead agency. It is their job to see that LRI's solid waste handling permit is followed. What did they have to say about LRI's blatant disregard for the law and their own permit conditions? They just put on those blinders they wear whenever there is a difficult issue to deal with (like rats and garbage).

CROWD currently has a lawsuit against the TPCHD. We want the courts to look at their failure to enforce the laws of this state, both Senate Bill 5729 and the water rights laws. Our goal is to see this landfill CLOSED! We don't need LRI's landfill. We don't like LRI's threats. And we will not tolerate LRI's disregard for the law.

CROWD is a non-profit organization supported by donations from the community. Donations to help pay our legal expenses may be sent to CROWD, 12414 Clear Lake North Road E., Eatonville, WA 98328.

Viki Steiner, CROWD President