11/25/2006: "PW Seeking New Transfer Station Property"

The San Juan County Public Works Department has put out a press release calling for the owners of land that may be suitable to site a solid waste transfer station, and are willing to sell it, to contact Public Works. According to the press release, the guidelines for consideration include a preferred size of eleven acres, or more, that is on a major road close to town, and is zoned for a transfer station; in other words, the site should meet the same criteria as the property the County has already purchased.

There is very little land on San Juan Island that has the proper land use designation ("zoning") for it to be used as a "solid waste transfer station" (i.e., where one dumps their trash so that it may be transferred to the main land), but if some property should be located that is zoned for a transfer station, Public Works would like to be informed if it is for sale or not, and then presumably will forward information on to the SWAC (Solid Waste Advisory Committee), which has been charged by the CC (County Council) with making a site recommendation to the CC.

Public Works will valuate any such property against the "current sites that are owned or controlled by the County", and that "the evaluation is expected to occur as part of a State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) process over the next few months and will end with a final site recommendation to the Council," said Solid Waste Manager Ed Hale. Any one with land to sell that meets the stated criteria is encouraged to call Mr. Hale, at 370-0532.

"This advertisement (the press release) is the latest action in the process of upgrading San Juan Island's solid waste system and is the latest product of the hard work the Solid Waste Advisory Committee has been doing to deal with solid waste issues on San Juan Island," said Alan Lichter, Chairman of San Juan County Council.

SWAC and Consultants have been meeting on the solid waste problem on San Juan Island for some time to considering the level of services that should be made available on San Juan Island. In October the Committee completed this task and presented a report to the County Council, who then asked them to help proceed on the siting aspect of the project.