SOLID WASTE IN SAN JUAN COUNTY

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List of stories about solid waste operations in San Juan County

Solid waste laundry list aired

For the first time in months the Solid Waste Advisory Committee spent its two-hour meeting talking about something other than garbage and recycling. Solid Waste Manager Jon Shannon updated SWAC on "a long laundry list of problems related to San Juan solid waste." Sewage lagoons, unpermitted construction debris pile and the closed Orcas landfill were on the list. Updating the county's Solid Waste Plan was also discussed.

Committee members looked through copies of Seattle's Solid Waste Plan with an eye to creating a plan with a similar reader-friendly format. Shannon said, "This shifts away froma prescriptive type of plan and focuses more on vision. It shows where we want to go." The plan update will be discussed again at upcoming meetings.

Regarding the laundry list of solid waste problems Shannon said, "The state Department of Ecology is taking a positive approach. Their intent is to help us get these longstanding problems resolved."

San Juan County's two sewage lagoons located on Lopez and Orcas Islands were shut down almost two years ago. There are only four surface impoundments in the entire state. The one on Lopez does not have a lot of liquid left according to Shannon, but is still pretty swampy. The Orcas lagoon still contains liquid. "The state is very interested in getting them closed," Shannon said. "We have no resources in the system to pay for it. We're going to give them a very phased approach to this." While Shannon does not believe the lagoons present a groundwater problem, he is concerned about security around the unfenced lagoons.

He noted DOE has been frustrated in the past with the county because plans have not been followed through. County Commissioner Darcie Nielsen spoke to DOE staff last week. "Basically the agent implied our system was on verge of being entirely shutdown until Huse and Shannon came on board and started addressing issues that had been ignored," she said. "Jon is doing a fantastic job and I am very glad he is here."

While data has been gathered from monitoring wells at the closed landfill on Orcas Island, a report has never been submitted to the DOE. The landfill was closed in the early 90s. Shannon said the county hired a consultant in 2000 to compile the data into a report which would meet DOE requirements. There is a possibility that DOE will order the county to create more monitoring wells. The wells shown on the plan approved at the time of closure do not match the ones actually on the ground according to Shannon.

For years contractors on Orcas Island were allowed to dump construction debris in a pile on Orcas Island. "It stopped that last year," Shannon said. "It is essentially an unpermitted landfill. We're trying to make it legal by permitting it and closing it at the same time. We hope we can get it closed without a huge cost."