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08/11/2006: "SWAC To Public: Four Options For Garbage"

The Solid Waste Advisory Committee (SWAC) held a public meeting last night (Thursday, Aug 10) to present four options to the public, and ask them to vote on which one they preferred. The options are the result of three SWAC meetings on the subject -that were lightly attended by a few members of the general public who have an interest in garbage, and had the time to attend the daytime meetings- that were designed to come up with a recommendation to the County Council, on how best to handle solid waste on San Juan Island.

The four options (emphasis added) presented at the meeting were:

1. A new transfer station located on usable property owned by the Town of Friday Harbor, ( adjacent to the closed landfill) that accepts large commercially hauled waste as well as residential waste collected by mandatory curbside collection of garbage and possibly mandatory curbside collection of recyclables

2. A new transfer station, built at a new site, that accepts commercially hauled waste and residential waste collected by mandatory curbside collection of garbage and possibly mandatory curbside collection of recyclables

3. A new transfer station located somewhere on land adjacent to the Town's landfill property, that accepts self-hauled residential waste and commercially hauled waste with curbside garbage collection available by choice.

4. A new transfer station, built at a new site that accepts self-hauled residential waste and commercially hauled waste with curbside garbage collection available by choice. This site could have extensive facilities for recycling and reuse.


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The four options were put together by SWAC under the guidance of a Facilitator hired by Public Works (PW), and PW staff. The theme of danger to workers and the public at the current site was close to the surface, and by the time PW issued a press release asking for public input on the four selected options, the theme was bobbing on the surface. Mike Kaill, chairman of the SWAC was quoted the press release as saying "The San Juan Island transfer station is too small, inefficient and unsafe and does not comply with state regulations," and the manager of the current site drives the point home, stating"I cringe when I think about those big long haul trucks maneuvering around that small transfer site when there's a line of cars with people waiting to bring in their trash and recyclables," and that "Even on the days when the transfer station is closed to the general public, the site is too small for the volume of waste received and for the big trucks and heavy equipment to operate safely. And we continue to get more people and more waste."

So how many accidents have there been, asked a member of the public at the Thursday meeting? A slight pause, and then Matt Zybas, the San Juan County Utility Manager, and the manager of the current site responded that, there have been no accidents.

Public Works had retained a consulting firm to run the meetings, and Public Works -who is in charge of planning and day-to-day solid waste operations for the county- supplied the staff and the data presented at the meeting.

If it seemed to some of the attending citizens that there may be an agenda at work for the construction and funding of a new solid waste transfer station, and perhaps some other associated services; if so, they would not have been dissuaded by the comments from the presenters that continued to stress the inadequacies of the current transfer site, and the emphasis on the inherent danger to workers. and the public that use the site.

There was standing room only at the meeting, and the questions were many and varied. Within 15 minutes of the adjournment time, the full explanation and the potential costs of each option where still under discussion. At this point the Facilitator was starting to have problems controlling the flow of questions and responses, and private conversations were breaking out in the room, so he called for a vote on the options.

In a stand-up-and-be-counted tally, Option one received 7 votes, Option 2 received 0 votes, Option 3 received 57 votes, and Option 4 received 42 votes.

At the end of the meeting, a member of the public, Susan Dehlendorf, asked the Facilitator to remind the public that they could still make additional comments, and suggest new options to the SWAC by sending in comments (to Mike Kaill, SWAC Chairperson: at mikek@sjcpublicworks.org) The public may also contact the County Council members at council@co.san-juan.wa.us

The next SWAC meeting will be on the 21st of August, and it is expected a final decision on their recommendation to the County Council will be made at that time.