Why I am opposed to the proposed garbage transfer station - By Susan Russell

I am opposed to the proposed garbage transfer station for several reasons: poor choice of location, destruction of farmland, negative impact on nearby population and cost.

Besides all the other health and environmental concerns, this thing is going to cost the taxpayers a pile of money.  Many in the community are already struggling with financial issues, people losing their homes, high costs of health care, schools struggling to stay open, children in need school supplies, etc. This proposed transfer is NOT a priority in this community right now and most people will not appreciate paying (higher taxes and dump fees) for a fancy new place to dump garbage when the existing transfer station we are using appears to be working just fine.  Yes, we need a better system to recycle green waste (at the present dump), but this is nothing compared to the cost of building a whole new transfer station.

And, the suggestion of installing a garbage incinerator in the works?  Insanity.  The cost of building of running such a facility, especially in this small community is an extremely poor choice. We previously lived in Skagit County WA (a large county with lots of funding) where one of these incinerators was built—THE TAXPAPERS SPENT MILLIONS and the thing ran haphazardly for only a few years (off and on—mostly off).  We we’re TOLD the thing wouldn’t pollute (IT DID!)   AND, have a low cost of operation (NOT). Below is a paragraph from Clark County Washington solid waste management plan 2000.

Several other MSW incinerators within Washington State have closed recently.
Incinerators in both Skagit and San Juan Counties have been permanently retired. The
Skagit incinerator built in 1988 was also partially funded through a State-matching grant.
The 178-tpd facility was closed in 1996 due to equipment failures and high operating
costs. A smaller incinerator in Friday Harbor (San Juan County) was closed in 1995
because it’s environmental compliance costs exceeded its budget. Olivine Corporation’s
100-tpd incinerator in Whatcom County was forced to suspend operations due to its
inability to compete economically against other county waste export operations.