King County's Giant Cedar Hills Landfill Will Get Bigger

RENTON, WA — The 920-acre Cedar Hill landfill east of Renton, famous for its garbage-loving bald eagles, has been given permission to expand. The dump has been the main landfill for 37 cities since 1965, and its expansion will mean stacking garbage higher.

The King County Council on Wednesday voted 5-2 to approve the 2019 Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan, including legislation allowing the Cedar Hills expansion. The plan says alternatives like a waste-to-energy or shipping waste outside King County would be too costly and worse for the environment than a landfill expansion.

Under the legislation passed Wednesday, Cedar Hills will be able to accept the region's garbage perhaps until 2040. New space will be made within the landfill by raising the height of garbage from 800 to 830 feet in certain parts of Cedar Hills.

Without an expansion, the landfill would run out of room by 2028, according to the county, leaving a short amount of time to prepare a replacement.

Most people living near the landfill wanted the Council to either close Cedar Hills, or find an alternative to expanding it. A 1,000-foot buffer between the landfill and surrounding homes was a requirement in the expansion approval.

"The first year we moved in we were amazed by the sight of the eagles that would land right in the trees in our backyard. What we were not aware of was all the trash they would be leaving behind. Monthly, we are filling a bag of all the trash the eagles are dropping. Also, when we moved in, the smell from the landfill was not that bad, however, it's progressively getting worse. The turning of the landfill and the gases emitted from it can not be healthy for us to be breathing, daily," Renton residents Phil and Kathleen Saltmarsh wrote to the Council in a letter asking that Cedar Hills be closed.

The expansion legislation passed by the Council does include a requirement for a bird management plan.

The Cedar Hills expansion was approved with Councilmembers Kathy Lambert and Reagan Dunn voting no, and Councilmembers Larry Gossett and Pete von Reichbauer absent.

Lambert voted against the expansion, she said, because she wants waste-to-energy seriously considered. The county's waste management division has not taken that option off the table, but had said 2028 is too soon to build such a facility.

"Instead of protecting residents near the landfill with a clear path and proven-technology that could have modernized our waste issues, they will continue to pile it higher and higher," she said.

Cedar Hills, which is visible from the nearby Poo Poo Point peak, is located off SR 169 due south of Squak Mountain.