QuickTake:

Lane County have agreements for new methane technology and is also putting up money for engineering costs to explore locating the CleanLane recycling facility at Short Mountain Landfill.

Lane County commissioners approved a trifecta of actions Tuesday, Dec. 16, tied to the future of the county’s waste management and recycling work. 

The actions will set the stage for the county’s recycling and waste management efforts for years to come. The decisions will bring newer technology for processing methane at the landfill, help determine the final location of the CleanLane recycling facility and provide infrastructure that will eliminate the need for trucks to remove liquid waste from the landfill. 

Some of the work is final: Commissioners approved a business agreement for new technology to process methane gas at Short Mountain Landfill and sell it on the natural gas market. Other actions leave unfinished business: Commissioners approved up to $1.3 million for engineering to explore whether the planned CleanLane recycling facility should be built at Short Mountain instead of a site in Goshen. 

Here’s a look at the projects approved and what comes next:

Natural gas technology

Commissioners unanimously approved an agreement to replace the county’s methane collection and electric generation facility at Short Mountain with a new technology that would “capture and clean” the methane, according to county presentation materials, and sell it into the natural gas system.

Trash dumped in landfills emits methane and other gases, potential hazards if ignored. For decades, the county has used outdated technology that converts the methane into electricity. 

In 1986, the county gave the Emerald People’s Utility District exclusive right to use the landfill gas for its landfill gas-to-electricity  facility. Since the early 1990s, the district has converted landfill gases into electricity for Lane County customers, producing about 4% of the district’s energy needs. The public utility district has about 22,000 customers in rural Lane County.

The contract, last updated in 2017, has about 18 years left on it, but the county and district both want to shutter the obsolete facility.

After advertising for proposals, the district entered into talks with Waga Energy, a France-based company that puts the new technology in landfills. The company currently operates 32 sites worldwide, including in the United States, France, Canada and Spain.

The agreement between the county, utility district and Waga replaces the utility’s lost power costs and shares natural gas royalties with the utility for the rest of its agreement with the county. 

The county will eventually get a portion of the royalties from natural gas sales, an amount that will be determined in part by market conditions.

CleanLane location 

County commissioners voted 3-2 to approve up to $1.3 million in engineering costs to explore locating the planned CleanLane project at Short Mountain Landfill, 5.5 miles south of Eugene, instead of at the Goshen site, which is between Highway 99 and Interstate 5.

Commission Chair David Loveall and Vice Chair Ryan Ceniga opposed the move. Loveall outlined a variety of objections, including the increased costs and the county’s wait for an answer to the appeal it filed with the state to obtain a special use permit needed for the Goshen site. 

“This project continues to frustrate me,” Loveall said.

In April, a county hearings officer rejected the county’s application for a special use permit. The county has appealed that decision to the state’s Land Use Board of Appeals, which faces a Dec. 24 deadline to decide. Additional appeals could extend that process beyond then. 

Tuesday’s decision does not guarantee that CleanLane will be located at Short Mountain Landfill. 

In December 2023, the county approved plans to contract with Bulk Handling Systems to construct and operate the CleanLane project at the Goshen site and purchase the land. 

County officials have estimated the total costs at $150 million, with the county paying $35 million for building and site development and Bulk Handling Systems paying $115 million. 

Another issue came up during the discussion: Sanipac’s decision to haul some Lane County trash to a landfill its parent company Waste Connections owns in Jackson County. That’s an issue because the county needs to provide at least 120,000 tons of materials annually to CleanLane, or compensate Bulk Handling Systems for the shortfall. The diversion to Jackson County started in 2023. 

“I don’t think we have enough garbage to feed this thing,” Ceniga said. 

The county is working with Springfield city officials on an intergovernmental agreement that could force Sanipac to pay a fee for trash it hauls out of the county. 

Ceniga suggested the county should have known about this hurdle before reaching this point and signing the Bulk Handling Services contract.

County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky, however, said that the tonnage started to decline in the past year, after the county signed the CleanLane deal.

Those plans are traced back to 2015 changes to Oregon’s recycling law that encouraged more diversion from landfills. Lane County selected a voluntary 63% recycling rate for its goal in 2025, up from nearly 53% as of 2022. 

The project, as planned, relies on fee increases in garbage rates for haulers to cover the county’s costs. The county has approved 8% increases in 2024 and 2025, with 6% increases in 2026 and 2027. That rate increase is applied to what haulers pay at the transfer station at Short Mountain. Separately, an annual 3% fee increase covers rising costs unrelated to the project.

But the proposal also has met opposition from local haulers. Shortly after the vote, the Lane County Garbage & Recycling Association, which represents local waste collection companies and recycling companies, announced the launch of CleanLane.exposed, a website that scrutinizes the county’s actions and finances tied to the CleanLane project. 

Specifically, the organization says the project was not adequately vetted and would have put the county on the hook for an estimated nearly $3.2 million in 2025 if the facility were operational. 

Gas line approved 

In a separate unanimous vote, commissioners agreed to pay about $3.8 million to install a larger 4-inch gas pipeline for Northwest Natural Gas to connect to the new Waga facility at Short Mountain.

The county’s payment for the larger gas pipeline also puts infrastructure in place in case the CleanLane facility is built at Short Mountain instead of the Goshen site. Without the extra payment, Waga would put in a 2-inch line for its technology, all it needs for the methane-related project. 

The approval project also allows the county to install about 1.8 miles of leachate pipeline to haul liquid waste from the landfill. The leachate line, essentially a wastewater service, would eliminate the need to truck wastewater out of the landfill, saving about $500,000 annually. 

With the ditches already dug for the gas line, it makes sense to install the leachate line at the same time, county officials said.

“We simply have the option given the fact that there’s going to be an open ditch,” Mokrohisky told commissioners.

The line is part of a broader wastewater planning effort that could eventually involve other communities such as Creswell.

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Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.