EVERETT — There was a time when a landfill southeast of the city made headlines for underground fires that smoldered for months at a time.
In the early 1980s, people were starting to move into The Point, a new development next door that offered breathtaking views of Mount Baker to the north.
Soon, some of these neighbors would find their views obscured by smoke spewing from the Go-East landfill. They cooped themselves inside their homes to avoid the fumes.
“The big, black billowing smoke — that was months,” said Peggy Hurd, who has lived there since 1982. “It smelled awf
ul.”
Officials first ordered the landfill east of Silver Lake to close more than 30 years ago. They granted a reprieve when a new owner stepped in.
But problems persisted. The fire refused to die. Snohomish Health District officials ordered the landfill closed again in 1983. And again in 1986.
Though the most recent closure plan was never followed through, the site has been mostly quiet — until about a year ago. That’s when Hurd and other neighbors learned of plans to develop the dormant landfill into a neighborhood of 106 homes called Bakerview.
Landfill opened in 1972
The former Go-East landfill occupies part of a 40-acre piece of land off 108th Street SE. It’s a on a steep hillside that slopes down to Lowell-Larimer Road. There’s not much to tell you it’s there, other than a broken chain-link fence and a footpath leading to what looks like a greenbelt of red alder, cottonwood and Himalayan blackberries.
When the landfill opened in 1972, it accepted wood and concrete. The landfill’s operator at the time, Rekoway Inc. of Seattle, soon received permission to accept different types of waste, including old tires, car parts and car seats.
Within a couple of years, authorities documented the first fires.
News accounts from the time described an explosion that threw out fireballs and knocked firefighters off a heavy tractor. The county fire marshal attributed the cause to a mixture of magnesium, phosphate and aluminum dust that a company had hauled there from south Seattle.
In 1977, the health district told Rekoway to close the landfill and to cover it by the end of the year. By October 1978, that still hadn’t happened. The following year, the Go-East Corp., co-owned by Seattle attorney Gary W. East, bought the property.
Go-East wanted to build homes there and was allowed to continue filling in the property to raise parts of the land.
For East, buying the landfill would lead to more than 30 years of frustration.
During a recent interview, he asked a rhetorical question, whether he should be held to the “Thou-shalt-be-shackled-to-this-property-for-all-remainder-of-time requirement.”
“All we want to do is close a landfill that has been essentially closed, inactive, monitored and checked for 30 years,” East said. “It’s absolutely beyond me the reaction that’s come forth.”
Plan gets green light
Over the years, various developers have looked at the property. They all eventually turned away, partly because of the cost of closing the landfill, East told the health district in 2008. In the same message, he said the site’s owners were at a crossroads, tired of paying taxes on a property they could neither develop nor sell.
Not long after that, East teamed up with engineer Marty Penhallegon, forming the company P&GE Inc. Penhallegon’s Kirkland-based engineering services company, PACE Engineers, set to work studying how to prepare the site for redevelopment.
In 2010, P&GE submitted building plans to Snohomish County seeking approval for a 106-home development on about 15 acres of the Go-East site.
Before breaking ground, it would be necessary to close the landfill — an issue unresolved since at least 1986. The Snohomish Health District would have to sign off on that part of the project.
A plan submitted to the health district called for grading the landfill’s surface and putting a cap of compacted soil over the top. Other measures would be necessary to control methane gas emissions and to monitor groundwater.
This past fall, the health district issued a formal decision: P&GE’s proposal would have no significant environmental impact. That type of decision also is called a determination of non-significance.
Neighbors’ concerns
People who live nearby, in The Point and Kings Ridge neighborhoods, responded by deluging the health district with their concerns.
Neighbors worried whether adequate testing had been done to probe what lies below the ground. They wanted more studies on ground, air and water contamination.
Perhaps the biggest fear, though, was the unknown.
“The records are what they are — they aren’t very good,” said Tom Croissant, who has lived in The Point about eight years and is the homeowners association president.
A Kings Ridge resident who is a retired Snohomish County PUD attorney thought the health district should have taken a closer look at its own records.
“Had they reviewed their file, they would have discovered all of this information that was readily available and it would have given them a lot more concerns about the proposal,” Glen Mixdorf said.
Neighbors also demanded guarantees for long-term environmental monitoring should Bakerview be built. What they’d seen on paper didn’t reassure them. The plan appeared to hand off site-monitoring responsibility to a future homeowners association at Bakerview.
“My fear is we don’t know what’s there,” said Dennis Martin, a licensed real estate broker who lives in Kings Ridge. “Do it right or don’t do it. The jeopardy is too great here.”
Neighbors also drew support from their county councilman, Dave Somers, who questioned the closure plan.
The response from neighbors was the biggest the health district had ever received on a landfill closure, said Gary Hanada, a manager with the district’s solid waste and toxics section.
Approval withdrawn
Suggestions that the landfill contains toxic waste or is dangerous infuriated East. He pointed out that for years neighbors have hiked on his property, walked their dogs there or let their children play there.
“Some of those letters are just completely off the wall,” he said. “There’s an incredible level of hysteria that’s just beyond comprehension. And some of these people have lived next to this site for 30 years — 30 years — and now they’re concerned about it?”
The letters did have an effect, though.
The health district withdrew its approval in December. It cited concerns about possible environmental problems and also said the landfill closure plan should be considered separately from any future development.
Penhallegon said he’s working through the hurdles.
“It’s in everybody’s best interest … to have the site usable and creating revenue for the county,” he said.
The Puget Sound region is dotted with old landfills, including some that have been redeveloped, he said.
Local examples include McCollum Pioneer Park on 128th Street SE near Mill Creek. It occupies a former municipal solid-waste landfill that in the early 1940s served as south Snohomish County’s main dumping site.
Everett’s Riverfront project between I-5 and the Snohomish River occupies a former city dump where a mountain of tires piled on top caught fire for months in the 1980s.
P&GE representatives and health district staff met again last week to discuss Go-East’s closure.Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
THE LANDFILL’S HISTORY
1972: Landfill opens, accepting wood, mineral and concrete solid waste.
1974: First report of fire.
1975: The landfill’s owner, Rekoway Inc., receives permission to accept tires, car parts, car seats and bulk packaging.
1977: Permits revoked. The owner is asked to cover the landfill.
1978: Closure requirements still not met.
1979: Go-East Corp. buys the landfill intending to build homes there, but is allowed to operate the site temporarily.
1983: The health district moves to close the landfill. The owners in August say closure “will be accomplished at the expense of the operator.” Fire breaks out in October. The Health District declares the site a “public nuisance.”
1984: A judge orders Go-East Corp. to pay $50,000 in firefighting costs because the company “set in motion the events which resulted in the unfortunate fires.” Neighbors file suit, complaining of being trapped in their homes by smoke.
1986: The health district outlines steps to close the landfill.
2008: Attorney Gary East, an owner of the site, writes to the health district about plans to build houses and the high cost of closing the landfill.
2010: P&GE, a company that Gary East formed with engineer Marty Penhallegon, in March submits a landfill closure plan. In September, the Health District rules that closing the landfill will have no significant environmental impact. Neighbors object and the health district reverses its decision, asking for more detailed closure plans.
2011: The health district and the landowner continue discussions. Landfill still not officially closed.
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