Regional Landfill Put On Hold Waste Management Cites Merger, Market In Suspending Project

Citing changes in market conditions and a pending merger, the company that has sought for nearly nine years to build a regional landfill in Adams County said Tuesday it has suspended the project.

Waste Management of Washington Inc. will ask the state Pollution Control Hearings Board to grant a continuance of hearings scheduled in June on the operating permit for the Adams County regional landfill project near Washtucna, spokesman Scott Cave said.

“It doesn’t end the project officially - it just puts everything on hold,” Cave said of the announcement.

Waste Management has spent millions of dollars developing the 560-acre project, which would handle trash from Eastern Washington and Idaho. The landfill originally was conceived in 1989 as a landfill for Seattle’s garbage.

Project manager Norm Wietting said in a news release that the company plans to evaluate the landfill over the remainder of the year and determine whether it will continue with the project.

Continuance of the pollution-control hearing leaves open the options of pursuing the project later or ending it, Wietting said.

Waste Management of Washington is a subsidiary of Oakbrook, Ill.-based Waste Management Inc., the largest solid-waste-handling company in the world.

On March 11, rival USA Waste Services Inc. announced it is acquiring Waste Management in a deal valued at more than $14.8 billion.

The proposed merger likely will take some time to be completed, and “that is part of the uncertainty,” Cave said.

The Organization to Preserve Agricultural Lands filed suit last June in Adams County Superior Court to overturn an operating permit the county health district had issued for the landfill.

OPAL includes farmers, ranchers and independent trash-haulers opposed to the landfill due to its potential to pollute surface water and ground water.

But neither that lawsuit nor four others OPAL unsuccessfully has filed against the landfill were the cause of the suspension, Cave said.

“We want to wait a little while to let the dust clear before we decide whether we want to pursue the project or suspend it,” Cave said. “OPAL has, at times, delayed the project and cost us some money. But they’re not the reason for today’s decision.

“It was driven by the company’s internal evaluation and a change in business conditions.”

OPAL president Gregg Beckley declined to comment, referring calls to secretary-treasurer Brett Blankenship, who did not immediately return telephone calls Tuesday afternoon.

Wietting noted the difficulty and amount of time it takes to develop large-scale environmental projects.

“Market conditions have changed during the permitting process,” he said. “Fortunately, or unfortunately, that’s one of the realities of this business.”

Waste Management started the project as a proposal to the city of Seattle in 1989 and secured a site permit in January 1994.

That same year, Waste Management won a tax battle with Oregon over its landfill in Gilliam County, Ore. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled a tax on trucks carrying Seattle’s trash to the Oregon landfill violated the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.

That ruling reduced the company’s need to develop an Eastern Washington landfill, Cave said.

Judy Greear, hearings coordinator for the Pollution Control Hearings Board in Olympia, said the agency had received nothing official from Waste Management as of late Tuesday afternoon.

A continuance of the June 8-12 hearings likely will be granted if all parties approve, she said.