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Local dump gets California trash But that was planned, and no one worries about the extra load By DAVID PRESZLER Trucks leaving the Rogue Valley loaded with wood chips are returning with trash from the California coast. Two to three trucks per day -- loaded with 22-25 tons of trash from Humboldt County -- have been arriving at the new Dry Creek landfill near White City since Oct. 1. And more truckloads, perhaps as many as a dozen per day, are expected around the first of the year. The influx of out-of-state trash may catch residents by surprise, but Dry Creek was always intended to be a regional facility, said to Don Cordell, a manager at Rogue Waste Systems, which operates the landfill. "This facility will serve a large area, and the advantage to our customers here is that it cuts costs by about half," he said. The Dry Creek landfill officially opens Jan. 2, but Rogue Waste Systems, the parent company of Rogue Disposal and Recycling, has already begun using it. The landfill's official opening will coincide with the closure of the South Stage landfill near Jacksonville. If the full dozen trucks arrive daily, it would add about 60,000 tons of trash annually to the 140,000 tons produced by Jackson County, Cordell estimates. But neither Rogue Waste Systems nor the state Department of Environmental Quality is concerned about the landfill filling up too quickly. "On a threat scale, it's pretty low," says Chuck Donaldson, the DEQ manager of solid waste for Western Oregon. "It would appear that that landfill has a capacity of 50-60 years at least." The Dry Creek landfill, when the 658-acre facility is completed, will hold 70 million cubic yards. The first 15-acre cell has already been completed. Larger, regional landfills like Dry Creek are the end result of Environmental Protection Agency and DEQ regulations, Cordell said. "The whole goal was to have a few, very high-tech, well-run landfills," he said. Humboldt County has traditionally shipped most of its trash to a Eureka-area landfill. But county officials say that landfill is nearly full and a controversial change of disposal carriers for the county and its cities has left them searching for place to put the trash. The old carrier, City Garbage Co., owns the Eureka landfill and doesn't plan to keep accepting trash from the commercial collectors. The new carrier, ECDC Environmental, plans to ship trash by rail to nearby Solano County and by truck to Dry Creek. But the rail line is down and it's unclear when it will be repaired. Until it is, the trucks will keep coming. The two to three daily loads will increase when a transfer station in Arcata is completed. As to why a new landfill can't be built in Humboldt County, Donaldson said coastal areas are considered poor sites for landfills because of increased rainfall and the lack of suitable land. That's why shipping trash to places like Dry Creek makes environmental sense. "All of those landfills are built where there is very little rain and they are all built to high standards," he said. Though some may balk at the idea of trash crossing state lines, Donaldson said it's extremely common. In fact, both Seattle and Vancouver, Wash., ship their trash to landfills in northern Oregon. "There's really no basis to discriminate," Donaldson said. Court decisions, including a 1994 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, have held that preventing trash from being shipped across state lines or charging higher fees for out-of-state trash violate federal interstate commerce laws. The DEQ doesn't regulate the amount of trash crossing state lines, although the garbage has to meet disposal standards for both the state it is leaving and the state it's going to. Donaldson said that's to prevent states from shipping waste to less-stringent states. Bettendorf Trucking, which is based in Arcata and has a White City branch, is hauling the trash from Humboldt County to Dry Creek. But the arrangement isn't creating additional traffic because the trucks are already hauling wood chips to Arcata and returning empty. The trucks haul the trash up Highway 101, across Highway 199 to Grants Pass, and then to Dry Creek. "It's been a good move for us," says Steve Caldwell, manager of the White City branch of Bettendorf. The trucking company modified its chip trucks to meet standards for hauling the trash. The trash hauling has caught the attention of the Rogue group of the Sierra Club. But after discussing it with Cordell, board member George Hutchinson says he doesn't have a problem with household trash coming here. "It's going to be buried somewhere," Hutchinson says. "Oregon or California trash doesn't bother me too much. I just want to know that they are in strict compliance with our laws. "We need to know exactly what they are sending up here and that they strictly comply with Oregon law." Rogue Waste Systems examines every load that comes in to make sure prohibited waste like medical supplies or toxic chemicals isn't included, Cordell said. At least once a week, there are more detailed screenings. All those inspections are documented for the DEQ, which inspects the landfills three or four times a year. Audrey Eldridge, a Medford DEQ inspector, said there have been very few, if any, citations issued to Rogue Waste Systems and she doesn't expect the California trash to present a heightened threat. Cordell understands that the idea of bringing in trash from other states bothers people, but said it's a part of the modern approach to solid waste disposal. "People can have this gut reaction," he said, "but this is 1998." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA