Lane County’s efforts to build a food waste diversion facility south of Eugene were rejected for a second time Wednesday. The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld a previous zoning denial from the state’s land use board.
The CleanLane project is an estimated $150 million partnership between Lane County and private company Bulk Handling Systems that would turn food waste into natural gas. It would also sort recycling in hopes of keeping more waste out of the landfill and reducing methane emissions.
The county raised fees at its landfill to pay its share. Garbage haulers, including a group represented by the Lane County Garbage and Recycling Association and Sanipac, a subsidiary of one of the largest waste management companies in the country, strongly opposed that change.
Sanipac and LCGRA, as well as people living near the proposed facility outside the town of Goshen, fought Lane County’s efforts to address land use problems with the site in court. Sanipac has also been hauling Springfield residential garbage to a landfill owned by its parent company, Waste Connections. That’s left the county’s waste management system millions of dollars short, and facing potential service cuts at its transfer stations.
In a news release, LCGRA spokesperson Katy Pelroy urged county leaders to abandon CleanLane, arguing the project and related legal costs, which the two parties were awarded during the dispute, were irresponsible.
“We hope this is the end of the road for Lane County’s wasteful legal crusade,” Pelroy said. “After losing at the local level, at LUBA, and now at the Oregon Court of Appeals, the county must pay legal costs to Sanipac and LCGRA while ratepayers continue to shoulder the burden of budget shortfalls and unmet public safety needs. Enough is enough.”
Lane County leaders have previously discussed moving the project to Short Mountain Landfill, where there are fewer neighbors that might object to a waste facility.
In an email, Lane County spokesperson Devon Ashbridge said the county is still considering next steps in light of the Court of Appeals decision. She said leaders are also still evaluating Short Mountain as a possible alternate site.
During a tour of Bulk Handling’s Eugene facilities last fall, CEO Steve Miller said his company had already manufactured some of the equipment for the CleanLane facility and would keep it in storage until the county has a location ready.
