Unknown investors are hoping to profit from Lake County officials’ willingness to serve as a landfill destination as Oregon faces a wave of landfill closures in the next decades.
In northern Lake County, one of Oregon’s most rural areas, Terry Crawford typically has a good sense of what’s going on.
She chairs the county planning commission, runs the chamber of commerce in Christmas Valley, and creates a monthly newsletter.
However, she was only recently made aware of the plans to erect Oregon’s biggest dump someplace near the sagebrush she calls her home.
She noticed a Facebook post about it.
The Knott Landfill, which will be the only landfill in Deschutes County as of July 6, 2022, is expected to be completely full by 2029, mandating closure.
The Knott Landfill, which will be the only landfill in Deschutes County as of July 6, 2022, is expected to be completely full by 2029, mandating closure.
Crawford remarked at her house in Christmas Valley, “I’d say there’s a great lack of openness.” What will we gain from it, exactly?
As early as January 2021, a new regional landfill was the subject of numerous closed-door talks between Lake County authorities, state representatives, and a private consultant.
But even as they move to buy land, the project’s backers have yet to reveal important information about where it would be built, how many people it would employ, and how it might affect the environment.
Even little is known about the group of investors who have pledged to fund and, presumably, profit from such a landfill.
Don Jensen of Salem, the group’s public face, won’t reveal the sources of his funding. Except for a dump in Idaho that has a history of regulatory infractions, Jensen has no experience sitting in new landfills.
When Oregon’s landfills are likely to collapse in the next decades, many municipalities will be forced to go east for locations to dump their waste. This is where Lake County’s proposal comes in.
At least seven landfills in Oregon are expected to close by 2050, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, though exact closure dates are subject to change.
In the Willamette Valley, the state’s most populous region, a new landfill hasn’t been approved for nearly 30 years, and it’s unlikely that will ever happen.
Shane Latimer, an environmental planner for SCS Engineers in Portland who specializes in landfill permitting, explained that this is a result of the region’s excessive wet circumstances.
The eastern, drier regions of Oregon will eventually receive the majority of the garbage we export, according to Latimer.
Across the state, local governments are choosing to send their trash to several sizable regional landfills.
Where there were hundreds of tiny landfills scattered throughout Oregon, there are now only a few regional facilities, according to Latimer.
Serving places both close by, such as the adjacent counties of Klamath and Deschutes, and far away, such as Marion County and the Portland metro area, is part of Lake County’s goal.
The developer, Jensen, has suggested purchasing roughly 8,000 acres, of which about 1,000 are originally approved for the landfill.
Given its size, it would be the biggest dump in Oregon or Washington.
In a region of Oregon that lacks industry, Lake County Commissioner Mark Albertson sees a chance to create local jobs.
Albertson characterized the undertaking as “very essential.” “It’s really vital that we acquire a million and a half dollars (in annual host fees), as well as whatever else that we can get to deliver services throughout the county.”
A shuttered shop in the centre of Lakeview, Oregon. Local officials are hopeful that a new regional landfill could help the region’s struggling economy. July 6, 2022.
a shuttered shop in the centre of Lakeview, Oregon. Local officials are hopeful that a new regional landfill could help the region’s struggling economy.
According to him, the majority of the county’s 8,000 population depends on agriculture and logging, but declines in those sectors have drastically reduced job possibilities for locals.
Albertson showed out a series of vacant stores from his office in Lakeview, the county seat, some of which had newspaper covering their windows and others had banners that said, “I believe in Lakeview.”
The majority of what we ship, according to popular belief, is not timber and hay, but rather our children, who are being sent abroad since there is no place for them to work.
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Last year, Don Jensen didn’t have to worry about competition when he presented a landfill plan to the Lake County commissioners.
In June 2021, the commissioners agreed on a memorandum of understanding with Jensen without seeking input from other developers.
According to emails sent to county officials, a draft of the agreement was created a month earlier by Jensen and his lawyer to prevent a more open process. Governments frequently request competitive bids for large projects so that businesses may submit open proposals for those contracts.
The county is not paying Jensen anything in this situation, and Jensen claims that since he is taking on the financial risk, a bid is not necessary.
Jensen said at the time, “We think that Lake County is a good location for our regional landfill. We believe the residents of Christmas Valley would benefit greatly from it.
