MINUTES OF THE METRO COUNCIL

SOLID WASTE & RECYCLING COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING

Wednesday, January 16, 2002

Council Chamber

Members Present:  Bill Atherton (Chair), Susan McLain (Vice Chair), David Bragdon, Rod Monroe,

Also present:    

Absent:      Rod Park

Chair Atherton called the meeting to order at 3:32 p.m.

2.  REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR’S BRIEFING

Terry Petersen, Director, Regional Environmental Management, reported on the 20^th Annual National Recycling Conference in Seattle, updated the committee on the Tire Recycling Task Force, announced that Metro had received a major award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Oregon for the St Johns landfill closure, and explained the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE). (For more detail, see the copy of the Regional Environmental Management Director’s Updates attached to the permanent record of this meeting).

3.  PUTRESCIBLE WASTE DEFINITION COMMENT PERIOD RESULTS

Roy Brower, Manager, REM Regulatory Affairs, gave an overview of the solid waste regulatory bulletin regarding management of putrescible waste at recycling facilities. (See copy of Metro Solid Waste Regulatory Bulletin included with the permanent record of this meeting.)

Chair Atherton asked if there had been any response to the bulletin from the industry.

Mr. Brower said he had received three industry comments: one written comment and two verbal comments, one of which disagreed with the 250 pound standard and suggested it should be 300 pounds instead. He said the local governments for the most part felt that the 5% standard was to generous and suggested a 1% to 2 ½% standard.

Chair Atherton asked why this was such a big problem when it was such a small amount of material.

Mr. Brower responded that at some of the dry waste material recovery facilities they were seeing fairly large loads of putrescible waste coming in mixed with dry waste which led to contamination of the entire load or it was a facility not authorized to take putrescible or low recovery loads. He said it had to do with some of the facilities not being equipped to handle putrescible waste coming to them. He said there had been situations where haulers intentionally mix garbage and dry waste and that was what they were working to prevent. He felt they were making great strides. He added they had cited some facilities in their inspection reports, but had not taken any formal action based on this policy.

Councilor McLain commented that the bulletin simply explained an existing code and was not new policy. She said she supports the policy because if the trivial was not taken care of, it would grow and cost the system more. Goal of policy is to make sure it stays trivial.

4.  DISCUSSION OF COMMITTEE WORK PLAN

Dr. Petersen spelled out the 27 items on the Draft 2002 Solid Waste Work Plan. (See Draft 2002 Solid Waste Work Plan included in the permanent record of this meeting.) He noted several themes in list, including a focus on waste reduction, being pro-active regarding issues such as dredge spoils that they knew would be coming up in the future, and implementing the strategic plan.

After committee discussion of the items on the work plan Dr. Petersen was directed to add three additional items to the list: pursuing strategies for changing the method of transportation of the waste to Arlington when the opportunity arose, reporting back to the committee on the household hazardous waste round-up program, and addressing hazardous waste such as mercury.

Dr. Petersen said staff could do an assessment of the waste stream infrastructure capacity for electronic and hazardous waste disposal to see if there was a gap between current and future demands. He acknowledged it would be a very time consuming project.

Chair Atherton noted reduction of toxics in the waste stream was a key element in the recently adopted strategic plan.

Councilor McLain reminded staff that the committee would need to be briefed on issues well before they showed up on the work plan in order to make decisions in a responsible manner.

Chair Atherton asked about various fee reductions granted to certain groups. He wondered how that affected the budget.

Dr. Petersen responded that there was $500,000 for fee waivers in the budget. There was $150,000 for neighborhood clean-ups and $350,000 for three non-profits: Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul, and Good Will.

Mr. Fjordbeck noted that those items would come before the council as required in the code for budget authorization.

1.  CONSIDERATION OF THE MINUTES OF THE DECEMBER 5, 2001, SOLID WASTE

 & RECYCLING COMMITTEE MEETING

ADJOURN

There being no further business to come before the committee, Chair Atherton adjourned the meeting at 4:54 p.m.

Prepared by

Cheryl Grant

Council Assistant

Attachments to the Public Record for the

Solid Waste & Recycling Committee Meeting of January 16, 2002:

Testimony Cards:

None.