A proposed landfill for construction debris has been given a second chance by a Clark County judge.
The written ruling by Superior Court Judge John Nichols sends the case back for a new hearing before the county commissioners.
Nichols, who had studied the case since Oct. 11, ruled that county commissioners relied on a hearings officer's incorrect interpretations in denying the landfill last April. The appeal, by East County Reclamation Co. of Portland, Ore., named the county and three individuals who had challenged parts of the environmental studies.
According to a local news report, Nichols said environmental studies are progressive in scope and that an initial study is not expected to guarantee that all possible problems will be solved. He termed the environmental work "procedurally adequate at this stage."
The most recent decision contradicts an earlier decision by the Clark County hearing examiner who concluded that the EIS filed by the project owners was inadequate. Additionally, the examiner also turned down a conditional permit for the C&D facility.
According to an attorney who has been involved in the case, several of the areas where the examiner found the statement inadequate include the following:
The company failed to adequately examine the dust spread with the prevailing winds;
The monitoring program was not fool proof; and
The examiner determined that there was a possibility of unacceptable waste being shipped to the site.
The issue may now is likely to go through two tracks – one will be through an appellate court hearing, which may take a year or longer; and a second track back to the Clark County Commissioners.