King County's trash is buried forever in a place with a beautiful setting.
The Cedar Hills Regional Landfill near Maple Valley has stunning views of Mount Rainier and lots of wildlife, attracted by what we throw away.
"You probably see more eagles here than you do on an Alaskan cruise," said King County Solid Waste Director Pat McLaughlin as he stood at the top of the landfill.
Those eagles also carry some garbage right out of the dump.
"How would you like to find this in your yard?" Dave Vogel asked King County Council members as he held up a bag of human blood that an eagle dropped on his property.
The council met Wednesday in Renton to hear public comment about expanding the landfill.
All of the speakers were against it.
"We're tired of being the dumping grounds of all things toxic and smelly," one neighbor told the council.
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McLaughlin said the cheapest and most environmentally-friendly solution is to bury trash at Cedar Hills a few more years.
He's hoping the county council and 37 cities soon approve a plan that also includes figuring out a long-term strategy, which might involve shipping garbage out of state or burning it for electricity.
"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," McLaughlin said.
Council member Reagan Dunn arranged the meeting in Renton and is sympathetic to the concerns of neighbors.
"Okay maybe we can live with it for a little while longer, but we must find an alternative solution because this isn't the future of garbage in King County," Dunn said.
The dump has been operating for 55 years and long-time neighbors say they've been through this before.
"They said they were going to close in 1980, and five years later they said they would close and again and again," Dave Prohaska told the council. "I've been misled for 40 years, please do something different."
Cox Media Group
