DSAC members propose quarterly ODEQ-based monitoring to verify Coffin Butte host fee and revenue

Paul Neufeld, a DSAC member and retired engineer, presented a proposal to give Benton County and the Disposal Site Advisory Committee (DSAC) earlier, more granular visibility into solid‑waste intake at the Coffin Butte landfill so the county can verify and project host‑fee revenue.

Neufeld told the committee he expects the county's total revenue from the site this calendar year "to be on the order of $3,600,000," and said that because the franchise fee has dropped from about $3,500,000 last year to $2,500,000 this year, the host fee portion paid in January could be "on the order of $1,100,000." He said the problem is a timing and visibility gap: county accounting receives host‑fee figures only after the landfill's annual report is released, typically in the second quarter of the following year.

Neufeld said the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) quarterly solid‑waste disposal reports could be used as an independent channel to estimate the tonnage that determines the host fee. He described a simplified calculation he used to approximate host‑fee…