League Friends,
In September, our local League hosted the first program of the 2023-24 year, “What’s Up with Coffin Butte Landfill? Shining a Light on the Issues.” Coffin Butte has been a hot topic of community discussion since the 2021 Coffin Butte landfill expansion application, and the September League program was developed to support the community in understanding and navigating the 1,099-page Benton County Talks Trash (BCTT) Workgroup process and final report.
For the September program, we invited workgroup or subcommittee members of the BCTT Workgroup to present the history and subcommittees’ work to an audience of 86 individuals in person at the public library and 49 attending the livestream event. Judging from the size of our audience, there was clearly a lot of interest in this topic!
The presentations were followed by a robust series of questions from both virtual and in-person attendees, with Annette Mills serving as moderator. Special thanks to our presenters Mark Yeager (History), Paul Nietfeld (Landfill Size/Capacity/Longevity), Ed Pitera (Past Land Use Application Conditions), John Deuel (Sustainable Materials Management Plan), and Mary Parmigiani (Community Outreach and Education) for putting together their portions of the program, serving on the Q&A panel, and for their eight months and hundreds of volunteer hours invested in the Benton County Talks Trash Workgroup Process and Final Report.
We invite you to learn more about the Benton County Talks Trash Workgroup Process and Final Report by reading this summary article. The future of the landfill and of materials management in Benton County will continue to be an important topic for our community, and we encourage your participation!
On behalf of the Coordinating Committee,
Catherine Biscoe