Oregon county explores new landfill site

A public hearing is being held this week in Bend, Oregon, hosted by Deschutes County Board of Commissioners regarding its options to find a location for a new municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill.

According to the county, new solid waste management facility will be needed once Knott Landfill, the county’s only MSW landfill, reaches capacity in 2029.

A proposed site, which the county says was recommended unanimously by its Solid Waste Advisory Committee (SWAC), is located in eastern Deschutes County and is currently a privately owned aggregate surface mine, or quarry.

“Following a rigorous site selection process, evaluating the advantages, challenges and costs of two potential landfill sites, ‘Moon Pit’ and ‘Roth East,’ the SWAC has unanimously recommended the Hooker Creek ‘Moon Pit’ site,” Deschutes County Solid Waste Director Tim Brownell says.

“Now that we have entered the public hearing phase of the process, we are asking the public for feedback on the committee’s final recommendation."

For the past two years, the Department of Solid Waste has been working with consultants and the SWAC to screen and evaluate potential in-county locations using siting criteria that include environmental, land use, site characteristics and engineering considerations.

That work has been documented in a Deschutes County Solid Waste Management Facility Final Site Evaluation Report.

Earlier this year, the SWAC voted unanimously to recommend the county Board of Commissioners select and move forward with the “Moon Pit” property located east of Bend on U.S. Route 20.

The SWAC says factors in favor of that site include: it is already “disturbed,” as it is currently being used as an aggregate surface mine; it is likely to have fewer new impacts to wildlife and recreation in the region; and it is closer to existing solid waste facilities, which could yield lower hauling costs and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

On its website, the county has posted figures for 2020 that indicate it generated about 300,000 tons of MSW that year, or about 3,000 pounds per person. However, nearly one-third of those materials, some 98,500 tons, were diverted from landfills via recycling, composting or reuse. Another 198,000 tons were disposed of in the Knott Landfill.