Long-anticipated landfill near Washtucna set to open in 2024, changing the way waste is processed for much of the Inland Northwest

WASHTUCNA, Wash. – A new regional landfill with plans to take household waste from across the Inland Northwest is under construction in the remote scablands of Adams County.

The landfill, owned by Waste Management Inc., was first permitted in the 1990s when it was the subject of local disputes by neighboring wheat farmers. It remained undeveloped until now.

The 550-acre landfill will sit on a larger site owned by Waste Management about 3 miles east of Washtucna, a town of about 200 people in southeast Adams County. The land lies in the rugged Channeled Scablands west of the Palouse, where scattered farm fields intersperse with coulees.

The facility will primarily accept municipal solid waste that cannot be recycled from cities and counties in Eastern Washington, North Idaho and parts of Montana.

Each county has its own solid waste disposal contract. As those contracts expire and other landfills fill up, counties will have another option to consider, said Ken Gimpel, Waste Management’s senior manager of business development for the Northwest.

Trash from much of the region is hauled by rail 200 miles southwest of Spokane to Republic Services Roosevelt Regional Landfill in Klickitat County.

Since the Adams County landfill is closer, trash will not have to travel as far, although it will have to be trucked there instead of sent by rail.

Gimpel said it is the first new landfill to be developed in the region in decades.

“We think it opens up a new alternative for folks out this way who haven’t had any in over 30 years,” he said.

Waste Management provides collection services for Airway Heights, Deer Park, Liberty Lake, Spokane Valley, unincorporated Spokane County and certain annexed portions of the city of Spokane.

All that trash can end up in different places, depending on the jurisdiction. But the majority of trash in Spokane County goes to the city’s Waste-to-Energy Plant, where it is incinerated to generate electricity. The ashes are then sent to Roosevelt.

Trash that exceeds the plant’s 800 ton-per-day capacity is also sent to Roosevelt. As the county continues to grow, more waste is sent to the massive Roosevelt landfill each year, according to Spokane County’s solid waste management plan.

Waste Management expects to begin operations at the new landfill early next year.

Prep work will involve building an access road and a weigh station, as well as excavating, Gimpel said.

The landfill will be developed in phases over its estimated 150-year lifespan. Fifty-acre increments will open every 20 years or so depending on the volume of waste collected.

Each cell will be lined with composite liner that protects the ground from liquids that drain from the bottom of the landfill. The design includes liquid and gas collection systems.

Eventually, the company will be able to trap methane produced at the landfill and convert it into usable energy. It takes a long time, however, before enough organic compounds break down into methane, Gimpel said.

First conceived in 1989, the landfill was intended to take trash from Seattle and the West Side. Gimpel said that is no longer likely.

Adams County commissioners first approved an unclassified use permit for the project in 1994.

This spurred a series of lawsuits from a group of local farmers. The group, called The Organization to Preserve Agricultural Lands, settled out of court in a confidential agreement in 2000.

The Adams County Health District issued a municipal landfill permit in 1997.

The following year, Waste Management announced it was halting the project, citing a merger and less favorable market forces.

In 2007, Adams County amended the unclassified use permit to make it permanent. As part of the agreement, Waste Management provides free waste disposal for the county.

The company also maintained its solid waste permit from the Washington Department of Ecology.

Because some regulations have changed over the past 30 years, Waste Management is updating some of its documents, said Stephanie May, an Ecology spokeswoman. They are also conducting borehole testing at the site and installing monitoring wells.

Market conditions are finally right to move forward, Gimpel said.

Initially, there will be construction and excavation jobs, then they will need more regular employees as the site grows.

“We hope to be supporting 20 to 50 employees over time,” he said.

In the ’ 90s, many Washtucna residents favored the landfill for the jobs it would bring, but some neighbors worried waste would leak into the groundwater, The Spokesman-Review reported at the time.

Others simply didn’t like the idea of taking big city garbage from Seattle or Spokane, Washtucna Mayor Brian Hille said.

“It was once the talk of the town,” he said.

Hille had hoped the landfill would open so that he could get a job there after high school, but it never came through.

Today, the town seems to have moved on from the controversy.

“I don’t see too many people too excited about it,” Hille said.