May 22, 1997

Operations permit granted for Adams County regional landfill

RITZVILLE, Wash. (AP) -- A regional landfill proposed eight years ago has cleared its final major hurdle and could open as soon as January 1999, a project spokesman says.

Adams County Health District officer Robert Atwood signed the operations permit for the landfill on Monday, nearly 2 years after county commissioners approved a land-use permit, said Scott Cave, a spokesman for Waste Management of Washington Inc.

Waste Management now must secure building, water and sewer permits and complete other requirements of its operations permit, Cave said Tuesday. Requirements include soil sampling and completion of water-monitoring wells and access road plans.

Construction could begin by next spring, he said.

Waste Management has spent about eight years and millions of dollars developing the 560-acre landfill site east of Washtucna, which would handle trash from Eastern Washington and Idaho.

The project has survived court challenges by the Organization to Preserve Agricultural Lands, including a lawsuit that challenged the validity of the project's land-use permit.

The group's secretary-treasurer, Brett Blankenship, said Tuesday night the organization was not ready to concede in its battle to halt the project.

The state Department of Ecology must still review the county's decision to grant the operations permit, Blankenship said.

The county failed to address questions about the landfill's effect on groundwater and its suitability in an area of dryland wheat farms, he said.

"This permit should not stand up under objective review," he said.

Blankenship also said the region does not produce enough garbage to make the project economically viable.

"They're a long way from trying to put garbage into this thing," he said.