King County vote on landfill expansion delayed

Update: 11:54 a.m. 4/1/19:

The vote did not happen as planned because legislation authorizing the expansion was amended by the King County Council Monday morning.

The plan will now be sent back to the Regional Policy Committee. The amendments, proposed by Councilmember Reagan Dunn, were all passed unanimously, and can be found in this PDF file.

“These amendments are a major victory for the environment and the people of King County,” said Dunn. “We must continue to work toward finding a common-sense, long term solution that protects the health of our communities.”

"The Regional Policy Committee next meets on April 17th and the legislation will be considered at that time. If and when it passes out of committee the plan will be sent back to the county council for further consideration," the county said in a news release.

Original story:

The Metropolitan King County Council is scheduled to vote Monday at 9:30 a.m. on a proposed plan to expand the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill, the county’s only active landfill, which would allow operations to continue for up to 20 years.

KIRO 7 has previously told you about opposition to the plan from neighbors who live nearby in the Maple Valley area.

Every neighbor who spoke at a March 20 county meeting in Renton was against an expansion and neighbors Sunday echoed those sentiments.

"No, I'm not for it,” said neighbor Rita Burrell. "Usually around this time, when it starts getting warmed up, the stench comes out.”

More than 800,000 tons of waste is dumped at the landfill every year, according to King County, that said the landfill is already the size of nearly 700 football fields.

"I've got less than ten years of space left here at the landfill and I need to know where the waste is going to go beyond that," said King County Solid Waste Director Pat McLaughlin in an interview earlier this month with KIRO 7's Graham Johnson.

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