We are continuing to follow the progress of the HB 3794 Joint Task Force on Municipal Solid Waste in the Willamette Valley.
The June HB 3794 Task Force meeting focused on a proposed Waste Infrastructure Partnership Act (WIPA), presented by Task Force sponsor Rep. Sarah Finger McDonald, as a potential framework for regional cooperation after Coffin Butte Landfill closes.
Representative Finger McDonald and her staff presented a thoughtfully developed framework designed to help communities plan and finance waste infrastructure while preserving local control. The proposal emphasizes voluntary participation, regional collaboration, state bonding assistance, and investments in facilities that reduce reliance on landfilling.
Today, seven counties depend almost entirely on bringing their waste to the Coffin Butte Landfill in Benton County. Those counties are Benton, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Polk, Tillamook, and Yamhill. With current planning assumptions indicating approximately 12 years of remaining landfill life, an alternative means of waste disposal must be planned.
Representative Sarah Finger McDonald presented the most fully developed policy framework yet offered to the Task Force. Drawing on six months of testimony, research, and discussion, she and her staff developed the proposed Waste Infrastructure Partnership Act (“WIPA” or “the Act”), a voluntary framework intended to help communities finance and build future waste-management infrastructure while preserving local control. Through a series of clear graphics and policy materials, the proposal translated a complex regional planning challenge into a practical and understandable roadmap for action reflecting many themes repeatedly discussed by Task Force members.
The WIPA plan defines a flexible optional partnership in which communities and counties have a choice not a mandate. The structure would rely upon the Act developing incentives that will benefit the entire region. Necessary components of a solid waste infrastructure such as transfer stations, resource recovery facilities, and intermodal truck to train transfer capability can be built or enhanced in the most suitable locations. Rather than creating a new regional government, the proposal seeks to encourage voluntary regional cooperation through financing incentives, technical assistance, and state-backed bonding support. Communities would retain authority over whether to participate and what projects to pursue.
As the Task Force enters the second half of its work, discussions appear to be shifting from identifying challenges toward evaluating practical governance and financing mechanisms that could support the region’s long-term waste management needs.
A brief history of the Joint Task Force meetings during 2026 was appended to the June newsletter update. This APPENDIX contains links to the Task Force webpage.