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Casey Campbell | Gazette-Times
An Allied Waste truck leaves the Coffin Butte Landfill on Wednesday. Locals have noticed the landfill smells far less stinky of late. |
Coffin Butte used to be a real snootfull; now neighbors report fewer foul odors
By KYLE ODEGARD
Gazette-Times reporter
ADAIR VILLAGE — At first glance — or perhaps sniff — a meeting about foul smells wafting from Coffin Butte Landfill would seem to be a gripe fest.
But the four residents who showed up at City Hall on Wednesday night raved about how the landfill has curbed heinous odors the last five years.
“Thank you so much,” said Kathryn Brooksforce of North Albany. There still are huge whiffs of garbage, but these happen less often, she said.
This year has had far fewer complaints about landfill stench, said Gary Andes, an air quality specialist with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. Those usually are from North Albany, instead of nearby Adair Village.
So far in 2008, the agency has received 36 complaints. In the first four months of 2007, there were 102 odor reports regarding Coffin Butte.
The situation should improve further thanks to a construction project. In mid-May, the landfill will install 25 vertical wells to collect methane gas from the decomposing trash, said Art Mains, Coffin Butte environmental manager.
The wells would average deeper than 75 feet, Mains said. He declined to provide a cost for the improvement.
“It’s a great project. It gets rid of greenhouse gasses, gets rid of stink and it produces power,” Andes said.
Since 1995, gas from the landfill has been piped to the nearby Pacific Resources Cooperative, which turns it into green electricity.
The facility has five combustion engines that can generate enough power for 4,000 homes. But it’s operating nearly at full capacity, and Pacific Resources is considering getting more units, Andes said.
Last year, the landfill installed 10 vertical wells, bringing its methane gas collection points to 200, Mains said.
Coffin Butte also has reduced odors, however, by switching its garbage collection methods. Since last summer, trash has been compacted and covered with dirt directly after it comes in, and the landfill has only been open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
In years past, the landfill was open 24 hours a day, and garbage wouldn’t be covered quickly.
“At night, you don’t have that open face of waste,” said Brian May, Coffin Butte manager.
The smell usually is more of an issue during the winter, May said, partly because heavy rain can lead to collection problems with the methane gas wells.
Coffin Butte is required to meet with neighbors twice a year to discuss emissions according to the terms of its air operating permit with the Environmental Protection Agency. Environmental laws don’t require the landfill to curb odors, however.
May said Coffin Butte simply is trying to be a good neighbor. “We don’t want any complaints,” he said.
Kyle Odegard can be contacted at kyle.odegard@lee.net or 758-9523.
Previous comments:
John Petillo wrote on Apr 24, 2008 7:59 AM:
" I wish we had a disposal company that gladly took your old computer stuff and tvs ..... in order to form a more perfect union ....
I also wish the amount of plastic going down Corvallis' storm drains would reflect the alleged superior intellectual function that lives here ....
I also wish people were not racist and ageist and classist and narcissistic and afraid....
I wish alot of things .... I shook Barack Obama's hand ... but I have very little hope "
boris_pistov wrote on Apr 24, 2008 1:40 PM:
" John, Allied Waste's new dropoff area has a bin for electronics. Not well publicized, but it's there.
There's also a bin for plastic bags, so we don't have to take them to the grocery stores. (They can't go in with co-mingled recycling because they apparently jam up the sorting machinery.) Take-your-own bags are still the best idea, though.
I'm appalled that even seemingly bright people in Corvallis can't be bothered to recycle. Just take a look at what gets dumped in the trash cans in the post office lobby -- and the recycling bins are literally right next to them!
As far as the greater faults of humanity... sigh. "
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