Representatives from Beyond Toxics and Valley Neighbors for Environmental Quality and Safety presented to the council on Oct. 20 about the Coffin Butte landfill expansion application pending before Benton County, saying the proposal raises concerns about methane leaks, monitoring exemptions and leachate that could affect Albany residents.

Mason Levitt, a research analyst at Beyond Toxics, said satellite work by Carbon Mapper showed repeated plumes of methane at Coffin Butte; Carbon Mapper flew the site 12 times over two years and found at least one large methane leak in each overflight, Levitt said. He described methane as a potent greenhouse gas and noted landfill gas includes carbon dioxide and trace pollutants that often cause odor complaints in nearby neighborhoods.

Levitt told the council that Oregon surface emissions monitoring rules require facility monitoring at 25-foot intervals, but that private operators sometimes exempt portions of the monitored surface. He said recent Coffin Butte reports exempted an average of 76% of the facility from monitoring in 2024 and peaked at a 92% exemption in the fourth quarter. He said Carbon Mapper leak pins corresponded with areas the facility had excluded from monitoring. Levitt said the EPA conducted inspections in 2022 and 2024 and had requested additional information; he said the agency’s randomized inspections found monitoring compliance issues and uncovered leaks.

Mark Yeager, a civil and environmental engineer representing the Valley Neighbors group, reviewed water-quality concerns. He described leachate as a toxic liquid that forms from waste decomposition and from rain percolating through the landfill’s active face. Yeager said Coffin Butte currently generates about 40 million gallons of leachate per year, with roughly 20 million gallons sent to Corvallis and 20 million to Salem for treatment; he said conventional wastewater plants are not designed to remove many leachate contaminants, including PFAS. He also said at least two early cells at the landfill are unlined and continue to generate leachate, estimating two unlined cells produce about 2,000,000 gallons per year.

Yeager and Levitt discussed the county’s land-use role: Benton County’s Board of Commissioners is evaluating the expansion as a land-use decision under county code, and the presenters urged Albany to consider the regional implications and alternatives to expansion. They described alternatives including material recovery facilities (MRFs) and intermodal transport to drier, eastern Oregon landfills such as Columbia Ridge — options they said can reduce greenhouse gases and leachate by diverting organics and by siting waste away from populated valleys.

Councilors asked technical questions. One councilor cited groundwater reports showing wells “within safe drinking water limits” and asked whether Carbon Mapper’s findings aligned with groundwater data; presenters said some monitoring wells have location or depth concerns and offered to share Disposal Site Advisory Committee materials and groundwater-well reports with council staff. Presenters said Republic Services’ public statements overstated county revenue from the landfill; Yeager said the annual revenue figure is approximately $2.8 million, not $6 million, and said the expansion would not create new on-site jobs beyond existing staffing cited in expansion documents.

Presenters urged a cautious approach and intergovernmental coordination; they said Benton County’s hearings remain the formal land-use venue but that the issue affects Albany’s air and water and warrants continued monitoring and interjurisdictional planning.