Oregon Agency Sets Hearing on Proposed MRF in Portland

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality will hold a hearing to receive public comments about a proposed solid waste material recovery facility permit for Pacific Land Clearing Company (PLC-1) located in the Freeway Land Industrial Park at 6400 SE 101st Ave. in Portland.

PLC-I holds a Metro Solid Waste material recovery facility permit license. PLC-1 previously accepted creosote-treated wood for transport to their Aumsville facility, where the wood was processed into hog fuel and used to fuel a boiler at the facility under a DEQ Air Quality permit.

PLC-I currently is not accepting creosote-treated wood but plans to do so in the future. PLC-I’s Metro License allows the acceptance of creosote-treated wood, subject to certain conditions, as does the draft DEQ material recovery facility permit.

In expanded operations, PLC-I plans to accept mixed loads of dry, non-putrescible waste for the purpose of recovering recyclable materials such as metal, plastic, paper, concrete, unpainted and untreated gypsum wallboard, polystyrene foam, and wood. Putrescible wastes are wastes that contain organic material that can rapidly decompose and create foul-smelling byproducts during decomposition or attract or provide food for birds and potential disease vectors such as rodents and flies.

PLC-I plans to accept and process mixed roofing wastes, but only for the purpose of supplying Coffin Butte Landfill with material for a DEQ alternative daily cover trial. Alternative daily cover is cover material other than soil placed on the surface of a landfill’s active face at the end of each operating day to deter scavengers and to prevent fires, odors, blowing litter and pests.

PLC-I is one of about 45 industrial tenants of the 60-acre Freeway Land Industrial Park. The PLC-I site is bordered to the north and east by other industrial sites, to the south by a drainage culvert and field, and to the west by I-205. The industrial park as a whole is bordered by residences to the east and south and Johnson Creek to the north.

The hearing is scheduled for May 21 in Portland.

For more information, contact DEQ Solid Waste Compliance Specialist Stephanie Rawson at (503) 229-5562 or rawson.stephanie@deq.state.or.us;  or click here