MINUTES OF THE METRO COUNCIL

SOLID WASTE & RECYCLING COMMITTEE MEETING

Wednesday, October 17, 2001

Council Chamber

Members Present:  Bill Atherton (Chair), Susan McLain (Vice Chair), Rod Monroe by phone.

Also present:    

Absent:    

Chair Atherton called the meeting to order at 3:45 p.m.

1.  CONSIDERATION OF THE MINUTES OF THE OCTOBER 3, 2001, SOLID WASTE &

 RECYCLING COMMITTEE MEETING

Chair Atherton postponed consideration of the minutes until the next meeting, November 7, 2001.

2.  REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR’S BRIEFING.

Terry Peterson, Director, Regional Environmental Management Department, reported on Metro’s newly developed “Construction Industry Recycling TOOLKIT” (see folder included in permanent record of this meeting) and the Oregon Environmental Council’s Forum for Business and Environment. (For more detail, see the copy of the Regional Environmental Management Director’s Updates attached to the permanent record of this meeting).

3.  ORDINANCE NO. 01-916A, FOR THE PURPOSE OF AMENDING METRO CODE

 CHAPTER 5.01 RELATED TO LOCAL TRANSFER STATIONS, AND REVISING

 EXISTING LOCAL TRANSFER STATION FRANCHISES TO BE CONSISTENT WITH

 THE CODE AMENDMENTS.

Dr. Petersen highlighted that the SWAC meeting resulted in support for the upcoming amendments, and that the Executive Officer had responded to a memo from Presiding Officer Bragdon which included three specific questions regarding this ordinance (see copy of the Presiding Officer’s Memo to Mike Burton RE: Additional Information Related to REM Legislative Package, dated October 9, 2001, and Mr. Burton’s letter of response, dated October 15, 2001, both of which are included with the permanent record of this meeting.) He summarized the memo by saying it was the Executive Officer’s and his perception that the decision on this particular ordinance was one of balancing a number of goals and priorities. He said their thought was that the waste reduction goal was paramount, and he pointed out that the framework set up in the ordinance was very good for evaluating trade-offs between some of the priorities.

Councilor McLain reminded the committee that the Solid Waste Advisory Committee (SWAC) had already approved amendments from the previous committee meeting regarding this ordinance and the following amendments were being moved at the request of the advisory committee.

Councilor Monroe commented that he considered this amendment a housekeeping issue.

(See copy of McLain Amendments to REM Legislative Package Ordinances included with the permanent record of this meeting).

Chair Atherton opened a public hearing on Ordinance No. 01-916A.

Matt Korot, City of Gresham, 1333 NW Eastman Parkway, Gresham, also a member of SWAC, supported the proposed Amendment #4, to accelerate the time table for doing the first review.

Regarding the overall allocation of new tons, he commented that it seemed there should be more equity between the west and east sides.

Councilor Monroe commented that he also had concerns about that balance.

Chair Atherton said the committee was committed to doing that evaluation.

Councilor McLain recognized the fact that there was not a complete solution to all of the issues that had been brought up and there was more work to do.

Lee Barrett, City of Portland, 1120 SW 5^th Ave., Room 1000, Portland, 97204, supported Ordinance No. 01-916A. He said he would also support the emergency clause amendment. He understood that the tonnages in Amendment #4 would be sufficient to allow Wood Village, Fairview, Troutdale and Gresham to transport their commercial and residential solid waste to the Recycle America facility or the cap should be revisited. He added that when Portland set rates, the collection component of that rate system was a single line item that included travel time, distance and maintenance on the vehicles. He said it would probably be difficult to track if a hauler chose to travel to a transfer station further away for some reason.

Chair Atherton asked why he thought that would not be easily analyzed.

Mr. Barrett responded that the rate was set for all of the houses in the region, not just the ones who might access Recycle America, so the savings get diluted by the others.

Councilor McLain commented that Portland had a little different system for reasons relating to its size. She said neither the City of Portland nor Metro would ever tell a hauler where to take garbage. She said Mr. Barrett was making an assumption about going to Recycle America for savings.

Mr. Barrett agreed they could not direct the hauler.

Councilor McLain asked if it would it be possible, with a higher rate on transportation, that a hauler might be able to lower disposal rates for themselves by going to their own facility.

Mr. Barrett supposed that could be true, but added that there were 7 or 8 components that made up the rate. He felt the rate process encouraged the haulers to be creative and more efficient because the better they did against the model, the greater their profit.

Councilor Monroe hoped all of the municipalities, including the City of Portland, set their rates based on the most efficient transport, and that Metro provided an opportunity for solid waste to go to a lesser distance would be taken into consideration.

Mr. Barrett responded that was what they attempted to do with their rate process.

Adam Winston, Waste Management, 7227 NE 55^th Ave, Portland, 97219, spoke in support of adding the emergency clause to increase the caps to 65,000. He felt it was important to the area that that should happen immediately.

Vince Gilbert, East County Recycling, PO Box 20096, Portland, OR, reminded the committee this was an ever evolving package. He supported the one year review amendment . He said the goal he was most concerned with was waste reduction. He recommended a conservative approach to whatever they ended up doing and urged the committee to keep in mind that there were four goals to keep in mind in this package.

After Committee discussion, Councilor McLain withdrew her motion for an emergency clause.

4.  ORDINANCE NO. 01-918, FOR THE PURPOSE OF AMENDING METRO CODE

 CHAPTER 5.02 TO REVISE THE TONNAGE CHARGE FOR DISPOSAL AT METRO  TRANSFER STATIONS AND TO MAKE OTHER RELATED CHANGES.

(See copy of McLain Amendments to REM Legislative Package Ordinances included with the permanent record of this meeting).

Councilor McLain explained that this amendment would reduce the regional transfer and Metro facility fee portions of the overall tip fee by 50¢ per ton which would reduce the overall tip fee from $65.50 to $65. She added the amendment would make the necessary changes in these two fee components and was consistent with the Rate Review Committee’s recommendation.

Chair Atherton concurred that the amendment was consistent with the Rate Review Committee’s recommendation.

Councilor Monroe supported the amendment.

John Houser, Senior Council Analyst, pointed out that the $65 rate was based on a projected excise tax rate of $5.22 per ton. He said that calculation would not be made until early Spring, so if there were significant adjustment in the tax amount at that time, the issue of the overall rate would need to be revisited.

Chair Atherton commented that the clarity of having these rates gives the public the clear understanding of whether Metro is raising their taxes or not.

Chair Atherton opened a public hearing on Ordinance No. 01-918.

Ray Phelps asked for clarification of the amendment. Councilor McLain replied it was the same amendment she had at the last meeting, but no action was taken on it at that time.

Councilor McLain reminded the committee about her Amendment #1 to Ordinance No. 01-919, the recycling credits. She said at the last SWAC meeting, they had wanted to make it very clear that they thought the language in that ordinance would not allow the committee to start working right away. She felt it could be fixed by simply changing the date in the ordinance that they could start working. She said she would bring the amendment to the Council meeting for a vote.

Mr. Fjordbeck said that amendment was to Section 3 of Ordinance 01-919 and was a conforming amendment to the addition which the council committee approved of the work group. Councilor McLain’s requested amendment would allow the work group to begin ahead of the effective date of the rest of the ordinance.

5.  ORDINANCE NO. 01-920, FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONSIDERING THE  APPLICATION OF RECYCLE AMERICA FOR A METRO SOLID WASTE REGIONAL  TRANSFER STATION FRANCHISE.

Ordinance No. 01-920 was withdrawn by the applicant just prior to the committee meeting.

Chair Atherton offered this agenda time for discussion of other solid waste issues.

Vince Gilbert took the opportunity to speak about the 25%-30% of recyclables he felt were being missed in the wet side of the solid waste stream. He offered that one way to capture that waste would be to combine wet and dry waste under a certain recycling rate, and have that rate tied to “tons in, tons out.” He felt strongly that raising the caps should be tied directly to effective recycling, for instance, a policy that said as a facility’s recycling increased, their caps could increase.

Chair Atherton added that giving incentives for more source separated recovery would be the way to go, to tax the “bads” and reward the “goods”.

Mr. Gilbert said it would eliminate the source separated problem completely, with tons in, tons out.

Chair Atherton recessed the Solid Waste & Recycling Committee meeting at 5:08 p.m.

Chair Atherton reconvened the Solid Waste & Recycling Committee meeting at 7:01 p.m. to consider Resolution No. 01-3111.

6.  RESOLUTION NO. 01-3111, FOR THE PURPOSE OF ISSUING A SOLID WASTE  FACILITY LICENSE TO S & H LOGGING, INC.

Casey Stroupe, 20200 SW Stafford Rd., Tualatin, 97062, owner of S & H Logging, explained that his facility was currently selling bark dust, compost, mixed soils, and other landscaping products to the general public and to commercial landscapers. He said they were currently taking in wood waste and yard debris and processing it through grinders to sell as hog fuel, which was not regulated by Metro. He wanted a permit from Metro to take in yard debris and transfer it to one of his other composting facilities.

Councilor McLain remembered that Mr. Stroupe had been before the Council previously and that a portion of his operation was already regulated by Metro. She clarified that the “new” product would also be regulated by Metro.

Chair Atherton commented that part of the issue may be that S & H Logging mixed a process regulated by Metro with a material not currently regulated by Metro.

Rick Franklin, 1880 Gilbert Dr., Lebanon, owner of Clackamas Compost and American Compost, clarified that the green waste they were seeking to get a permit for would be going into one of their composting facilities to make reusable compost.

Mr. Houser asked if they were subject to any form of regulation since Metro nor DEQ regulate hog fuel.

Mr. Stroupe said it was unregulated but they met County zoning regulations.

Chair Atherton asked about dust and/or noise issues associated with the operation. He asked how the operation handled the leachate from the sprinkler system that controlled the dust, or even the rainfall.

Mr. Stroupe responded there were definitely issues with dust and noise. He said they had collection ponds to catch the runoff and added that other issues were responded to in the application. He said they had invited the DEQ to check out their system a couple of years ago, even though they were not the regulating agency.

Roy. Brower, REM Regulatory Affairs Administrator, briefed the committee on the staff report. (See copy of the staff report included in the agenda packet with the permanent record of this meeting) He said the conditional use permit allowed by Clackamas County for an RRFF5 zone was the last piece needed by Metro to process this license application which contained generic regulations to address the issues of the neighbors. He said if permitted, staff would closely monitor the facility and vigorously enforce those requirements. He added that many of the issues raised by local residents had to do with the hog fueling operation, over which Metro had no regulatory authority. He felt that could affect Metro’s approach to enforcement. He added that typically, once a Metro license was in place, an operation plan was required, but not in advance of the approval.

Councilor McLain asked if there was a program in place for a relationship like this, where there were pieces of the operation that Metro did not have oversight. She asked if there were enough resources to do this.

Mr. Brower said currently there was a single inspector who was responsible for about 40 operations. He said they were in the process of expanding those resources, but at the current level, that person tried to do unannounced inspections 2-4 times a year at the composting operations, and they specifically try to respond to any complaints from citizens.

Councilor McLain thought there should be a matrix for definite routine checks, unannounced or not. She wanted to talk more about that separately. She understood the staff recommendation to say they did have a relationship potential here that was doable.

Mr. Brower thought it was better to have a license in place for that regulatory tool to keep standards and deal with issues a little more head on. he felt one difficulty with the code was without a license in place or an application pending, there was no regulatory authority over operations. He recommended granting the license to have those standards in place.

Chair Atherton commented that the goal would be to have zero citizen complaints, and if Metro set the conditions, there would not, in theory, be complaints. He had some concerns regarding the application. For instance, the application reported that the prevailing winds blew north and east, which was in direct conflict with what he heard from the neighbors, and from his own experience at the Aurora airport. He was also concerned about the provisions for odor control at the site. He asked about traffic problems and treated wood.

Mr. Stroupe said from his on-site experience, the wind blew from the northeast the majority of the year, he guessed 75% of the time. He said they currently mixed any green waste with wood waste to control odors, but a license would allow him move the green waste immediately to other sites so odors would not be a problem. He said a traffic engineer had looked at this facility a few years ago. He added that any kind of treated wood was turned away from his facility.

Barbara Kemper, 17673 SE 130^th Ave., Clackamas, 97015, read her testimony opposing expansion of the S & H Logging operations. (See copy of this testimony included with the permanent record of this meeting).

She read a letter from Janelle Sisson and an e-mail from Janet Schemm, two neighbors of the site in opposition to the expansion, into the record. She also noted letters of opposition from Kay Faure of Povco, Inc., and Carol Lehl of the John Lehl Company, both located on Capps Road,. (See copies of all three included with the permanent record of this meeting).

Councilor McLain asked if she would object if the waste was taken away within 24 hours or less of arriving at the facility as an odor control.

Ms. Kemper responded that in all probability it was over 24 hours old when it arrived, so she felt chances were pretty good that it would already be smelly by the time it got to the facility. She said Clackamas Composting had a history of odor problems as well.

Chair Atherton noted letters of opposition from Paul Mueller, Michael Hoevet, and Earl and Lois Itel, who had similar issues about noise and odor and some traffic impacts with Clackamas Composting. (Copies are included with the permanent record of this meeting).

Councilor McLain wondered what had been done about any complaints regarding Clackamas Compost and whether it was fair to judge S & H Logging by that when only the company was the same, not the operation.

Mr. Brower said there had been numerous complaints received regarding Clackamas Compost and they had worked with both regulatory staff and a staff composing expert to come up with different options. He said the number of complaints had started to tail off although there were still problems. He said composting was cyclical and was worst in spring when the green grass started coming in.

Councilor McLain asked if Clackamas Compost had complied and if monitoring was a priority there as far as further resolving their problems. She wanted to be sure they had the resources to deal with the conditions of either site.

Mr. Brower reported that mixing woody material with green, a standard at composting facilities, had been the primary way they tried to resolve the odor issues at Clackamas Compost. He said Mr. Stroupe had been willing to try a number of options and he thought that based on the level of complaints, the problem was better now than a year ago, and certainly better than the previous company, Scott Hyponex.

Councilor McLain asked if there was any comparison to Nature’s Needs in North Plains.

Mr. Brower said they had a different process, but there had been odor problems there as well.

Councilor McLain asked for a report from staff regarding whether Clackamas Compost was meeting conditions since it was the same company.

Chair Atherton cited the staff report argument in support of the application that Clackamas Compost was well run and had few problems. He said testimony from citizens here disagreed with that and he felt more study was needed as the application said green material would be sitting there for a time. He wanted to formally request DEQ come check the groundwater at the sites.

Councilor McLain did not feel it was necessary to have DEQ involved in this issue because it had been a separate process where the groundwater was not an issue when DEQ checked the composting operation.

Chair Atherton noted letters in opposition to the license from Richard and Roberta Wiehrdt and a cardiologist, Dr. S. Anthony Garvey, M.D., who is responsible for a heart transplant patient who lives in the area. He continued the hearing on Resolution No. 01-3111 to November 7, 2001.

ADJOURN

There being no further business to come before the committee, Chair Atherton adjourned the meeting at 8:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Cheryl Grant

Council Assistant

Attachments to the Public Record for the

Solid Waste & Recycling Committee Meeting of October 3, 2001:

Testimony Cards and Written Testimony:

RE: Ordinance No. 916A

Matt Korot, City of Gresham, 1333 NW Eastman Parkway, Gresham, OR, 07030.

Lee Barrett, City of Portland, 1120 SW 5^th, Rm. 1000, Portland, OR 97204.

Adam Winston, Waste Management, 7227 NE 55^th Ave., Portland, OR 97218.

Vince Gilbert, East County Recycling,

Written testimony

e-mail to Susan McLain from Sarah Jo Chaplen

e-mail to Susan McLain from Rick Winterhalter

RE: Resolution No. 01-3111

Barbara Kemper, Clackamas CPO. 17673 SE 130^th Ave., Clackamas, OR.

Written testimony from:

Michael R. Hoevet, 17581 SE Wilde Rd., Clackamas

Kay Faure, 135^th Ave, Clackamas

Richard & Roberta Wiehrdt, 2200 SW Borland Rd., West Linn, OR 97068

Barbara Kemper, 17673 SE 130^th Ave., Clackamas, OR 97015

Janelle Sisson, 995 Edgewater Rd., Gladstone, OR 97027

S. Anthony Garvey, M.D., cardiologist of S & H neighbor Dawn Hall.

Paul Mueller, 17140 SE Wilde Rd., Clackamas, OR 97015

Carol J. Lehl, 12320 SE Vernon St., Clackamas, OR 97015

e-mail testimony from Janet Schemm