Siting, Permitting, Designing, and Construction of a Major Forest Products Landfill Facility, 1995 Environmental Conference Proceedings

Richard Thiel, P.E.

EMCON Associates

Jon Wiese, P.E.

EMCON Northwest

Chris Haynes, P.E.

Weyerhaeuser Company

What do you do when your only available wood waste disposal facility is closing? You either find another disposal site or build your own The Weyerhaeuser Company built their own. The landfill is one part of an integrated waste management system That system manages solid waste across all Weyerhaeuser businesses in the region Integrated waste management includes waste reduction, recycling incineration with energy recovery and finally a secure landfill. All of these parts are critical to ensure reliable, cost effective and environmentally sound solid waste management. It took four years of effort for the Company to site, permit, and construct a new forest products landfill to accept waste from the Weyerhaeuser pulp, paper and timber facilities in Longview, Washington Significant issues faced during the process included mitigation for filling 48,600 square meters of wetlands and diversion of 610 meters of fish bearing stream, evaluation of over 30 alternative sites, local public support and opposition, major storm water issues involving 65 inches of rainfall annually, difficult volcanic soils, and a four month construction season to accomplish $10 million of initial construction Getting the new Southwest Washington Solid Waste Facility on line involved a huge effort by Weyerhaeuser, regulators, consultants, engineers, attorneys and contractors as well as a commitment of millions of dollars. Throughout the permitting process Weyerhaeuser made long term commitments to deal with environmental issues, and they emphasized proactive community relations. Landfill cell 1, the first of approximately 20 planned cells, and the related support facilities were designed to meet the permit requirements of the Washington Department of Ecology. Certain portions of the facility were also built to conform to the permit requirements of other state and Federal permits, most notably the Corps of Engineers 404 Wetlands Filling Permit and the Washington Department of Wildlife permit dated primarily to fish habitat issues. This paper summarizes the process that Weyerhaeuser Company undertook to meet the demanding challenge of siting, designing and constructing this state-of the-art landfill. It also discusses some of the successful habitat creation that is now supporting local fish and wildlife.