Everett wants trash out of town

By KATE REARDON

Herald Writer

EVERETT – One thing is clear, city residents don’t want Snohomish County’s garbage in their back yards.

A few dozen people on Wednesday told members of the county’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee their concerns over the possibility of relocating its transfer station on 36th Street to northeast Everett.

County officials and the committee are studying eight sites for a new central county garbage transfer station. Seven of those sites are located within the city limits of Everett. A new station could cost as much as $15 million to build.

"We don’t want it in any neighborhoods," Lowell neighborhood resident Gail Chism said.

"The northwest neighborhoods are being asked to take too many hits," said David Mascarenas, who lives in the Port Gardner neighborhood.

More large trucks barreling down East Marine View Drive were a concern to several residents. Other concerns were for the environment, traffic and quality of life.

The advisory committee will meet Aug. 9 to talk more and will eventually pare down the list, said Jeff Kelley-Clark, county solid waste management director.

The list includes the Delta Yard North site, named after the rail yards where it would be located. It’s in northeast Everett, and neighbors there have objected to it.

There are three more in the general vicinity of that neighborhood. One is a second site in the Delta Yard, and the other two include Port of Everett property along the Snohomish River. The last in the area is property owned by Kimberly-Clark near the Snohomish River just north of U.S. 2.

In addition, there are three sites on Smith Island near Highway 529 and one in southeast Everett on Snohomish County Airport property near Holly Drive and Airport Road.

"We’ve been looking for several years, and there is no perfect site out there," Kelley-Clark said.

The station should be moved to Smith Island, said Everett City Council member David Simpson, who also lives in the northeast Everett neighborhood.

It would co-exist with development already there, and there are no neighborhoods, he said, adding that he doesn’t want the transfer station to be located in any of the city’s 18 neighborhoods.

Reid Shockey, an Everett planning consultant, said he represents a client who owns 37 acres on Smith Island that has been targeted as a possible site.

"The owners of that property support the location there," Shockey said. "The location there seems logical … away from neighborhoods."

The current site, on Everett property, is too small and cannot be expanded because of environmental issues, Kelley-Clark said, adding that the site is close to the river and was built on pilings on a former landfill.

Without proper and possibly expensive construction, the weight of an expanded transfer station would be too much for the landfill, which leaks methane gases from the rotting garbage underneath, he said.

Besides, Everett would like the transfer station to be relocated, Kelley-Clark said.

You can call Herald Writer Kate Reardon at 425-339-3455or send e-mail to

reardon@heraldnet.com.