Environmental health describes large property abatement and used-oil collection changes

Thurston County environmental health staff told the Solid Waste Advisory Committee on March 6 that a recent private-property abatement removed about 77,000 pounds of solid waste and identified operational and human-services challenges in similar cleanup cases.

The abatement ran from July through September and involved multiple occupants, on-site RV living and coordinated agency action, staff said. Environmental health staff described the work as technically complex and emotionally fraught: they said all occupants needed to be off-site during heavy equipment operations and that coordination with other agencies and any concurrent court actions is critical.

On the abatement, staff described lessons learned: the need for full occupant cooperation, the importance of coordinating all compliance actions and the absence of reliable trash-disposal resources for highly impoverished occupants. The division said that those human-service needs can delay or complicate property cleanup.

Environmental health staff also reported a roughly 5,000-gallon decrease in used-oil collection from the prior year and said one collection location (referred to as site 109) is under different ownership and may no longer host a used-oil container. Staff said the county is trying to retain a collection option in that area.

Staff described enforcement as complaint-driven and noted that they do not generally perform cleanups except for specific abatement cases; their role is coaching, permitting and inspection to protect health and the environment.

Ending note: staff said they will pursue additional training for junk-vehicle affidavits and that Alex Palmer (environmental health staff) is the current primary contact for derelict-vehicle and related complaints.