Klamath Marsh Landfill Project
What is it?
The Klamath Marsh Landfill Project is a 806-acre landfill, that will be implemented through 30-acre cell increments.
Who is involved or engaged in the project?
Don Jensen
Russells Dump
Klamath County Planning Department
What you should know about the project:
The inherent logic of this CUP is that the Klamath Marsh, ancestral lands of the Maklaks Peoples, is viewed by the applicant and the county as wasteland uniquely situated to be engineered and permitted, formerly, as wasteland. This CUP is about artificially re-valuing the land as so worthless for any uses, including being left alone, that it becomes a wasteland. This view is in direct contrast to how others value the land as sacred and part of the Pacific Flyway.
The current zoning designation for the proposed site area is for Exclusive Farm Use-Grazing.
The application for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to change the zoning from Exclusive Farm Use (EFU) to another type of use that permits a landfill has specific criteria that must be met to be considered/ approved by the county planners.
The county application and approval process is not concerned about how the landfill will impact non-business related interests because the county politicians have yet to write any other consideration but business considerations into the law. This is how they ignore cultural heritage and environmental concerns -- they don't include them in the "conditions" to consider in the process of applying for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to change the zoning to allow for a dump to be located on EFU Land that is in a sacred marsh.
The dump is the site of the Pacific Flyway and the Klamath Marsh. Birds will be confused as to where to spend their time and where they are. Uncountable numbers of birds will be poisoned by animal carcasses, leachate chemical ponds, microplastics, and petroleum-soaked waste. Birds will swarm the rail cars for hours as they offload, they will swarm the dump as the dozers roll around, and they will experience a serious disruption to their migratory pattern as they wonder whether they have arrived in Shangri-La and stopped here forever. The area will be an incubator for the H5N1 Avian Flu. Have any migratory bird studies been conducted about how locating a massive dump under the Pacific Flyway will impact birds all over the world who pass through?
The applicant says they will contain stormwater, leachate, and run-off to the property line; however, the horizontal water flows will migrate to lower elevations and travel through the groundwater. This is a marsh -- the ground will soak up, and when it does, it becomes a fluid mass. This dump will be like a giant fetid and rotting tea bag sitting in a marsh leaching out its chemical stew into the groundwater. A 1964 water right applicant for permit G-3319 appurtenant to this specific site wrote: "This part of the Klamath Marsh is the higher part and soil is 15” to 24” over a pumice overlay. This type of soil takes quite a lot of water until it gets well-sodded. I would say about the same as sandy soil. Too, I would expect quite a little loss until the canals get sealed. This has been the history in this area." The thin layer of soil sits on a layer of pumice -- volcanic rock known for its good drainage properties. The applicant expects significant water loss through seepage, which is exactly what the dump will do: seep into the pumice, enter the groundwater, and move into the marsh in perpetuity.
Who should care about it? Why?
This is the homelands of the E-ukshi Division of Ewksiknii Maklaks. Our ancestors were granted original allotments in the direct project site area, and most of our families have been removed over the past hundred years.
There are a few hundred residential lots directly adjacent to the proposed dump site, most of which may never be developed if this dump gets approved. Most are yet to be developed. Those who own the lots, and there are hundreds, will lose their development potential to build there -- the lots will remain relatively worthless. Also, anyone who moves there will be moving into a "Frontline Community" made so by the dump. The only people who would willingly move there would be the most disadvantaged members of our society; as such, this dump makes a perversion out of creating new, affordable housing.
Any residents within the area of this proposed project, should also be highly concerned about the project compromising their source of water. All of our groundwater, surface water, and aquifers are connected, the seepage caused from the landfill, will directly implicate nearby residential and agricultural water sources.
What do we do?
TESTIFY at the Klamath County Planning Department Hearing is Tuesday April 23, 2024 at 6 pm at the Klamath County Commissioners Chamber
SUBMIT WRITTEN COMMENT to Erik Nobel, Planning Director, no later than April 23, 2024 at 305 Main Street, Klamath Falls, OR 97601, (541) 851-3648, ENobel@klamathcounty.org