Lane County considers siting new recycling facility at Short Mountain Landfill, instead of Goshen

Lane County officials are now considering the Short Mountain Landfill site as a possible alternative location for a new multimillion-dollar recycling facility.

The CleanLane recycling project is meant to address the limited capacity at the Short Mountain Landfill by allowing Lane County to process its own recycling and waste. It would divert an estimated 80,000 tons of material from the landfill each year.

​In some ways, it is a return to original plans to place the facility at Short Mountain. But size restrictions at Short Mountain prompted planners to then propose placing it at Goshen.

After a land-use officer ruled the Goshen site would violate local zoning laws, state legislators proposed House Bill 3971, which would have exempted the potential facility from local zoning restrictions. The bill died in the last legislative session, however, and officials turned to the Short Mountain Landfill as a possible location.

“Because there is uncertainty regarding the legal challenges to the Goshen property — and those could take years to resolve — we have begun to take a second look at Short Mountain Landfill as a possible site,” Lane County Public Information Officer Devon Ashbridge said in a written statement.

Ashbridge said officials have been able to find ways to shrink the overall footprint of the CleanLane facility, somewhat easing the size limitations at the Short Mountain site.

Mason Leavitt, program coordinator for local environmental organization Beyond Toxics, sees the project overall as a step forward on a path to local sustainability.

“This project is exactly the direction that we want to see the state moving in for waste management solutions,” Leavitt said. “This type of investment in a waste sorting facility will decrease the amount of organic waste going into our local landfill, which decreases the amount of landfill gas and odors and problems that are associated with both public health and quality of life.”

Not everyone see the facility as a positive, though. Beside the zoning battles, the facility has been caught in controversy involving the increased fees tacked onto trash haulers.

Sanipac, the largest hauler in Eugene, originally bid for the CleanLane project, but now opposes it. The company has started diverting trash it would have sent to Short Mountain to southern Oregon to avoid paying the Lane County fees that would fund CleanLane.

Last year, several small regional garbage haulers and recycling businesses formed the Lane County Garbage and Recycling Association to fight the project, citing its price tag and adverse impacts on the residents of Goshen.

Goshen residents have complained about the prospective facility as a local nuisance, adding to littering and quality of life issues from a landfill already in their community.

Jake Pelroy, volunteer president for the Lane County Garbage and Recycling Association, says while the Short Mountain location would resolve littering and traffic concerns of Goshen residents, the change only further drains the county’s budget. He noted that the county has appealed the initial Goshen ruling to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.

“It doesn’t change our major complaint that it’s not a necessary project, and it’s way too costly,” Pelroy said. “Another question I have is … why are they still pursuing (an Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals) appeal for the Goshen location?” The appeal, he said, “seems pretty wasteful.”

Lane County officials say they need a more thorough evaluation to see whether the Short Mountain Landfill site is truly viable, a process that will begin sometime this fall.