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SWAC presses Ecology on organics diversion math and flags large capacity target
Summary
Committee members questioned Ecology’s organics diversion spreadsheet (2015 baseline + 75% by 2030), noting the county’s calculated capacity need (~411,965 cubic yards) seems unusually large; Ecology agreed to re-check source data and whether biosolids are included.
Clallam County Solid Waste Advisory Committee members on May 27 pressed state Ecology staff for the source data behind county organics diversion targets required by law and flagged a striking capacity figure in Ecology’s spreadsheet.
A county staff member noted the Ecology spreadsheet uses a 2015 baseline plus a 75% reduction target by 2030 and showed the county would need to identify about 411,965 cubic yards of organics capacity. "It just really jumped off the page at me... we're massively higher than any other comparable rural counties," the staff member said, asking whether biosolids or other categories were included in the calculation.
An Ecology representative said the Mercury Lamp Retail Association vendor plan (discussed in the meeting) would be posted for public comment after conditional approval, and that Ecology would follow up with the organics team to verify the source data and assumptions. Ecology agreed to examine whether the 2015 numbers were used appropriately and whether a different baseline (for example, 2021) would produce more feasible targets.
Why it matters: The organics diversion requirement (expressed as a percentage reduction from a baseline year) drives planning requirements and the identification of facility capacity. Committee members said local facility configurations changed since 2015 and that counting decisions (for example, whether biosolids or material land-applied but not composted are included) materially affect county obligations.
Next steps: Ecology agreed to meet with county staff to clarify the source data and reporting logic and to bring clarified numbers back to the committee. The committee also suggested inviting Ecology’s organics staff to a future meeting for a technical briefing.
Quotes (from the meeting): "We've got a massive amount of space that we have to identify... 411,965 cubic yards of capacity needs to be identified based on those massive numbers." — Clallam County Public Works representative "I'll have to see what the source is; I was under the impression we weren't counting biosolids... I'll just look into that." — Ecology representative
Ending: Ecology will follow up with the committee with source documentation and may propose using different baseline data or corrected categorization if the original spreadsheet included items that should be excluded from the organics target.
