Waste Management Shares Plans for Maltby Sep/08

Penny Mabie of EnviroIssues and Susan Robinson, Director of Public Sector Services for Waste Management Northwest along with seven other Waste Management staff met with about 30 Maltby area residents to talk about Waste Management's Maltby facility. The meeting was held September 17 at the Maltby Community Club on 206th, just west of the old Calvert site that was purchased by Waste Management in 2006.

The format of the session was a brief review by Ms. Robinson of Waste Management's plans for the Maltby site followed by Q&A. Briefly the plans are

• No garbage stored, processed, or transferred at Maltby
• No processing of any materials at Maltby
• No storage of any waste materials at Maltby
• Transfer of "greenwaste" (yard waste, scrap food) from collection trucks to long haul trucks, not to be kept overnight at the site
• Parking for 200 collection trucks (garbage, recycling, yard waste)
• Sixteen slot maintenance depot working on a swing shift
• Northwest administrative offices for about 130 staff

Ms. Robinson acknowledged that while nobody wants a garbage company for a neighbor, Waste Management has a good track record of working with the communities that surround their sites. She offered the Woodinville and Houghton (Kirkland) neighborhoods as evidence. She stated that the two biggest concerns heard so far through comments on county permit process, direct feedback, and items posted on MaltbyNow were around the areas of traffic and noise.

Ms. Robinson pointed to steps Waste Management has done to limit noise by enclosing major operations within buildings, staging the working hours of the operations, and the placement of buildings. The working hours would be

• Parked trucks exiting the facility primarily from 4 am to 7 am
• Trucking backing in to dump "greenwaste" from 10 am to 3 pm
• Trucks returning to the facility from 2 pm to 5 pm
• Administrative working on flex time mostly between 8 am to 6 pm
• Refueling of trucks by tanker from 5 pm to 7 pm
• Maintenance work on trucks on "swing shift" (5 pm to 1 am ??) though later discussion suggested all night

Ms. Robinson stated that the primary reasons for choosing the Maltby site were that the majority of Waste Management Northwest's employees resided in Snohomish County, the need for a new facility required by the growth of Waste Management operations, and the belief that the Maltby site provides the least amount of traffic across all Snohomish operations for Waste Management. Ms. Robinson suggested that Waste Management's costs are directly related to fuel and labor. Any thing that shortens the time staff are running trucks, the better for Waste Management.

The timeline for the development has building work beginning in 2010 with occupancy in 2012. See at the end for artist's drawings of the finished site.

Following Ms. Robinson's presentation, Ms. Mabie lead a question and answer session where many Maltby residents challenged Ms. Robinson's claims. Of primary concern was the impact to traffic. Waste Management predicts that about 70% of the 200 trucks will use the Broadway/Yew/Paradise Lake Road route to SR 522. Residents pointed out the existing traffic backups at the Yew/SR 524 intersection and the Yew/Bostian/Paradise Lake Road intersection a block south. Of large concern was the increase in traffic on 206th/78th/201st (connection of Broadway and Highway 9) as Waste Management staff and locals attempt to get around the log jam of trying to get to SR 522.

A Maltby residence stated a desire for a "contract" between Waste Management and the community to keep traffic off 206th/78th/201st. Ms. Robinson stated that Waste Management has not done that before but will work with the community, the county, and the state on traffic. It did not appear that this promise made many of the residents happy. Waste Management has only done a preliminary traffic estimate and will hire an outside engineering firm to complete the required traffic plan. The plan will be reviewed by the county planners and ultimately require approval by the county Director of Planning. It is unclear what the county can require given the existing land use designation of the property.

The other issue, noise, was briefly talked about. There will be some site noise there most of the time depending on maintenance work. Most of the noise will be between the house of 4 am to 7 pm with "backup beeps" mostly between 10 am and 5 pm.

Waste Management was also faulted for not getting notification out to enough of the Maltby neighborhood. Waste Management stated that they will hold another meeting in about a month and also present a proposed traffic map.