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Jefferson County is currently conducting a planning process that will evaluate alternative solid waste facilities that will cost-effectively provide services to the community for the next 40 years. This website is where you can learn why changes are needed, what kind of benefits remodeled, or new solid waste facilities could provide, where they might be located, and how we could pay for them.
You can read through the whole site or skim each page to get an idea of what is happening and when your thoughts are needed. And if you want to dig deeper, all relevant supporting documents will be available at this site.
We are glad you are here. We hope you bookmark this page and return periodically to follow this planning process . This project is about a facility that affects virtually everyone in our county. You can get email updates when new information becomes available by signing up for project updates in the box below. If you have questions about the site or the project, please be in touch, via our contact information below.
Next Meeting
Work continues and Task Force reconvenes
Thanks to the 319 people who took a survey last year about what’s important in a new or rebuilt transfer station. The Solid Waste Facilities Task Force and the Public Works Department have discussed all the input that was received from the survey along with other comments that were emailed. Read about what they learned HERE.
Since last year, county staff have continued to work on the siting process, conducting additional screening and analysis. (scroll down to Planning Process) On October 9, 2024, staff shared their work with the Task Force and talked in more detail about the elements of this PRIMER that the Task Force used to get caught up. County staff and the consultant also used this PRESENTATION to assist the Task Force with identifying a general location that is best suited for a new transfer station.
The results of this exercise will be posted here shortly.
Background
Our Solid Waste System
In Jefferson County our solid waste system includes garbage and household hazardous waste collection and disposal, programs for waste reduction and recycling, and the administration of those programs.
Our main solid waste and recycling facilities are both located at 325 County Landfill Road, which is near Port Townsend, about 0.75 miles west of Highway 20. This location hosts the:
- Main transfer station
- Recycling facility operated by Skookum Contract Services
- Environmental center for the collection of waste oil, antifreeze, batteries, and fluorescent lights
- Drop-off box for sharps (medical needles)
- City of Port Townsend’s Biosolids Compost Facility
Almost all the County’s garbage, whether collected at curbside or brought in directly by residents and businesses, ends up being handled at the main solid waste transfer station.
One other facility open to the public in Jefferson County for solid waste disposal is the Quilcene Drop Box, located at 295312 Highway 101, about 23 miles south of the transfer station. That site accepts solid waste, recyclables, has a drop-off box for sharps, and it hosts an environmental center like the one at the transfer station.
Our Approach to Planning
As required by state law, we earlier created a comprehensive document, called the Jefferson County Solid Waste Management Plan, which spells out how we operate and maintain all our public sector solid waste systems. The plan is periodically updated with input from the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, the City of Port Townsend, and various partner agencies. After each new edition is formally adopted by the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners, it guides the work carried out by the Solid Waste Division.
Why This Project?
In 2016, we identified several challenges with our current solid waste facilities. These challenges include POPULATION GROWTH, FACILITY CAPACITY, and AGING FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT. Let us dig a little deeper.
Population Growth
Our County population is expected to continue to increase, such that the Office of Financial Management in Olympia projects we will have 40,093 residents by 2040, a 32% increase over our size in 2015. Importantly, this forecast does not include our tourists and seasonal residents, which are also increasing in number each year. More people means more waste to manage.
Facility Capacity
Our current transfer station facilities were designed to handle 50 tons of waste per day but are now processing about 54% more than this design capacity. As a result, we are limited in how much waste and traffic can be handled quickly, safely, conveniently, and economically. The increase in both the tonnage of refuse and the number of transfer station users is straining our system.
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- Customer wait times are increasing.
- We are limited in what materials we can divert from landfilling due to lack of on-site short-term storage space.
- On-site space also limits traffic flow.
- Safety of customers and facility staff is less secure than we would prefer.
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Outdated Facilities and Equipment
Our transfer station was built in 1994. Our recycle center was built in 1983. As with any industrial facility and equipment, the costs to maintain them increases over time. Our challenges include:
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- The scales that weigh all the incoming garbage and outbound vehicles will need to be replaced in the next five to ten years. Additionally, their location causes operational delays, and they are not long enough to accommodate larger truck and trailer combinations.
- A different set of scales, which weigh our solid waste trailers as they are being filled in the transfer building, was installed in 1992. They were replaced at a cost of almost $300,000 because replacement parts are not produced anymore.
- The roof over the tipping floor building (where refuse is unloaded) will also need to be replaced in the next five to ten years.
- The recycling center was designed to manage materials under favorable market conditions that made their sale into commodity markets cost-effective. Unfortunately, declining prices in this sector have substantially reduced the attraction of this activity, at least from an economic perspective. In addition, costly repairs to the loading dock and asphalt around the recycling center are pending.
- The two expensive trash compactors at the Quilcene facility will need to be replaced within the next five years.
- The current site is limited in the area that could be developed to increase the types of materials that could be kept from going to the landfill. The majority of the property is the closed landfill which cannot be redeveloped for industrial use.
Why Now?
We need to address these challenges to keep our system efficient, reliable, and affordable to serve our public, both self-haulers and larger commercial companies. We need to either make major improvements to the existing transfer station and recycling facilities or replace them entirely. The planning process we are now undertaking will identify which approach produces the most long-term benefit relative to cost and other considerations. We are beginning our planning now because it will take at least several years to design and build new facilities or remodel the existing ones. A decision on our optimal solid waste facility alternative(s) is required before the state-mandated updates to the Solid Waste Management Plan and the County’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan are schedule to begin in 2024.
Facility Elements
As part of the planning project, we will assess the present condition and capabilities of our County’s solid waste facilities and determine if more, larger, or different systems are needed to provide the level of service desired by the community, over the next 40 years. How best to manage the different waste materials, and the nature of facilities needed to accommodate our county’s growth and future solid waste system changes, will be addressed in formulating recommendations for the Board.
Facility Planning Process
Solid waste facilities planning is a multi-dimensional, multi-step process, based on a forecast of the future needs of the community, robust public engagement, an agreed upon level of service that should be provided, as well as the evaluation of realistic alternative location options and funding possibilities. This county-wide planning process considers the environmental, socio-political and economic impacts of the facility alternatives on the community. A high-level representation of the planning process is illustrated in Figure below.
Facility SITING, Conceptual Design, and Financing
Each step of this project will be completed collaboratively with the Solid Waste Facilities Task Force (Task Force), which includes representatives from the Board of County Commissioners, Port Townsend City Council (PTCC), County and City departments, regulatory agencies, business and residential neighbors, and solid waste hauling companies. The SWFTF is not a decision-making body but rather a collaborator fully integrated with the consultant team, participating in and advising on the solid waste facility planning process.
There are three key parts of the Solid Waste Facilities planning process. In brief:
Phase 1 – Task Force and county staff worked collaboratively to determine what buildings and services should be included (Solid Waste Facility Design) and developed a list of potentially viable sites. The community provided values, aspirations and concerns to inform the work. (Solid Waste Facility Siting).
Phase 2 – County staff conducted additional studies with a narrower focus, to ensure all potentially viable sites are considered. They also developed an additional screening process to ensure equitable siting.
Phase 3 -Task Force and county staff will conduct a General Area Screening, to determine the best general area in the County to locate the solid waste facilities to equitably serve the community. Staff will conduct more detailed review of potential sites within the selected general area. The community will provide input on best general area and on potential sites within the general area. Staff and the Task Force, considering community input, will develop a recommended site, conceptual design, and funding plan for presentation to the County Commissioners.
In more detail, the three phases of the planning process include:
Phase 1
To determine what buildings and services are needed at a new or rebuilt Solid Waste Facility, and where the facility could be located, several activities have been completed:
- Current solid waste and recycling regulations and requirements were reviewed.
- The technical team conducted an assessment (Current Condition Assessment) of the current Port Townsend Transfer station, looking at things like age and condition of buildings and equipment, size of facilities needed based on volumes of waste to be handled and numbers of customers to be served
- The assessment found the current transfer station to be marginally adequate to meet service demand.
- Based on the condition assessment, the Solid Waste Facilities Task Force considered what services should be included at the station. This included considering functions such as waste management, recycling, yard waste collection and more. In addition, the County conducted an online survey, sharing the Task Force’s thinking and asking for feedback. You can read about the survey results here.
- After reviewing the public survey feedback and the current condition assessment, the Task Force recommended that a new facility should meet a medium to high level of service. You can see a description of the levels of service in Handout 1 .
- To determine where the replacement or rebuilt Solid Waste Facility should be located, an additional process was used beginning with a list of over 6,000 potential properties. This list included the existing Port Townsend site and three other county-owned properties. Computer mapping, called Geographic Information Systems or GIS, generated this list. You can see more about this process in Handouts #3 and #4.
- Next, exclusionary screening criteria were used to narrow the list. The criteria included zoning, size, compatible use, wetlands, and urban growth boundaries, among others. After applying each criterion separately, the list of potential sites was narrowed down to 11 parcels, which included the County-owned sites.
Phase 2
- Staff-led studies were conducted to better understand and consider potential sites for the replacement or rebuilt Solid Waste Facility.
- The County’s GIS department developed a mean population center for residences north of Highway 104 and another for all of East Jefferson County. This provides reference points for considering service equity and greenhouse gas emissions.
- A customer survey was conducted at the transfer station regarding effects of an increase to the minimum fee in reducing small load self-haul trips and to gain insight into where customers were coming from.
- Staff conducted several siting exercises, including using modified siting criteria which included residential properties, applying pass/fail screening to 26 sites, contacting private property owners of potential sites to assess their willingness to sell their property to the county, and developing a revised short list by comparing remaining properties to a number of considerations.
- Staff developed an additional site selection framework – General Area Screening – to determine which region in the county (north, central or south) would be the best area for the facility. See Solid Waste Facility Process Primer for more details about Phases 1 and 2.
Phase 3
- Here the team will continue the evaluation process. The Task Force will use the General Area Screening process to determine where in the county (whether north, center or south) would be the best location for the transfer station. County staff will share the results of this meeting at an public open house and report the feedback from attendees back to the Task Force.
- County staff will conduct deeper analysis one or more potential sites within the preferred area.
- Using the additional information, a comparative analysis will look at issues such as traffic impacts, safety, site access and site flexibility, among others to pair one or more sites with the Solid Waste Facilities conceptual design and develop both an estimated cost and a funding strategy.
- County staff will then bring the conceptual design and funding strategy back to the Task Force for review.
- After all these steps are completed, the preferred site, conceptual plan and a funding strategy will be presented to the Port Townsend City Council and the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners to determine next steps with the project.
Workshop 1
Kick-Off and Chartering
This workshop was held on September 27, 2022. Its purpose was to discuss and achieve a shared understanding of the project’s vision, goals, scope, stakeholders, schedule, boundaries, and the form of the final work product that will be delivered to the City Council and Board.
Workshop 2
Charter and Workplan Review and Adoption
This workshop was held on December 15, 2022. The purpose of the session was to discuss and achieve a shared understanding of the integrated project team charter and the work plan and agree on the adoption of both documents.
Workshop 3
Solid Waste Facility Current State, Community Needs and Associated Level of Service
This workshop is planned for March 10, 2023, and its goal is to achieve a shared understanding of a number of things, including:
- The current state of the existing Solid Waste Facilities,
- The community’s priority current and future facility needs,
- The associated levels of service (i.e., service types and scope, facility refuse handling capacity, recycling operations, space, traffic, safety, compaction, etc.), and
- Design criteria and functional requirements that establish the basis for design of the facility alternatives, necessary to achieve the optimal level of service.
Workshop 4
SOLID WASTE FACILITY POTENTIAL ALTERNATIVES DEVELOPMENT AND SCREENING
At this workshop, planned for April 2023, the project team will leverage the community needs and existing facility condition and performance data to develop, screen and rank potential facility improvement alternatives, These alternatives will include facility rebuild and replacement options that will potentially meet community solid waste facility needs for the next 40 years. Selected two to three high ranking alternatives will be evaluated in detail later in the planning process.
Workshop 5
Site Selection Criteria and Screening Model
This workshop is planned to be completed in May 2023. This session is intended to achieve a shared understanding of the criteria and approach that will be used to screen potential facility sites, including the existing ones, and to develop an initial list of potential alternative locations.
Workshop 6
Solid Waste Facility General Area Siting
This workshop will provide the Task Force with a review of the work completed collaboratively in Phase 1, review the work completed by County staff in Phase 2, and conclude with a siting exercise that will identify a general location within the study area that staff will then consider in more detail.
Workshop 7
Site Selection, Conceptual Design, and Funding Strategy
This workshop will provide the Task Force with feedback gathered at a public open house, staff’s analysis of one or more sites located within the General Area selected at Workshop 6, a conceptual design, and a funding strategy.
The Task Force will provide feedback to staff on a draft recommendation to be delivered to the Board of County Commissioners.
Public Involvement
For the County to achieve community acceptance of this project, participating stakeholders, as well as the broader public, must be respectfully informed, understand the decision-making process and their role in it, see that their input is valued, and hear from the County about how they have influenced the decisions involved. The activities in this task will support a public involvement process that is transparent, fair, and accessible to all community members, who will be integrated into the process to provide input on the project via in-person and online public meetings and in-person engagement at community events.
Facility Planning Status
September 27, 2022
A kick-off meeting with County solid waste personnel, the Solid Waste Facilities Task Force (SWFTF), and the consultant team was held at the fire departmen,t training facility in Chimacum. After introductions and an overview of the solid waste system and the project, the SWFTF was presented with draft project goals and objectives. Members of the SWFTF suggested the County include an assessment of solid waste facilities and services to inform what facility improvements might be needed. The SWFTF also engaged in a public involvement workshop, suggesting key stakeholders, community issues and needs, and providing input on potential concerns and key messages.
December 15, 2022
The SWFTF met to review and comment on a draft project charter and work plan. The SWFTF discussed and gave specific feedback on guiding principles, an updated project goal, the project scope and workplan, and success criteria. A revised project charter and work plan will be presented to the SWFTF for approval early in 2023.
March 10, 2023 – Workshop #3
On March 10, 2023, the Solid Waste Facilities Task Force met again. Following up on their previous workshop, the SWFTF discussed and finalized their workplan and charter. They heard an informational presentation from the County’s professional consultant lead, Dr. Victor Okereke of Vikek Environmental Engineers, LLC, about the current condition of the County’s Solid Waste Recycling and Transfer Facility at Port Townsend. The condition assessment looked at many areas of the facility, including site access, capacity, scales and scale house, congestion, traffic flow, recycling, building conditions, public facilities, environmental quality, and customer experience. Sarah Fischer, of BLRB Architects, another consultant team member, shared ideas and information about how deficiencies at the existing facility could be addressed. Prior to the meeting, the SWFTF members had provided ideas for additional changes that could be considered as part of the Solid Waste Facility Replacement Planning project. At the meeting, the SWFTF participated in a polling activity to identify which ideas of those collected were of the most importance to them.
April 28, 2023 – Workshop #4
On April 28, the SWFTF met again. They learned about the consultant team’s work to develop potential alternatives for how to address the existing Solid Waste Recycling and Transfer Facility’s challenges. Alternatives were shared that could be mixed and matched to address challenges such as site access, congestion on site, and site flexibility to manage future growth and types of materials collected for disposal and/or recycling. The SWFTF provided their thoughts about the elements of each potential alternative. The SWFTF also gave feedback on potential criteria for how to evaluate the different alternatives to reconstruct or replace the existing facility. At future workshops, the SWFTF will consider whether the current location can accommodate different rebuild or replace alternatives. Meeting materials are included below.
July 28, 2023 – WORKSHOP #5
On July 28, 2024, staff and the consultant met with the Task Force to review a screening method facility design. The Task Force was also provided with a current state condition assessment of the transfer station facility which showed the facility to be marginally meeting service demand and unable to meet demand over the next 40 years. Results of the public survey were also shared.
October 9, 2024 – WORKSHOP #6
Click here for the agenda and click here for the primer.
Solid Waste Facilities Task Force
The Board of County Commissioners created a Solid Waste Facilities Task Force to assist staff and our outside consultant team with all aspects of finding the best solution to our current situation, including the active engagement of the community in the decisions that are going to be made in the near future. The Task Force will help the County:
- Develop a conceptual design for modified or replacement solid waste facilities,
- Identify the best location for the facilities, and
- Identify how to finance the project.
Task Force meetings will be open to the public and observers will be able to provide public comment at each meeting. The agendas and summaries of each meeting, including a compilation of public comments, will be posted on this page.
Solid Waste Facilities Task Force Members and Their Areas of Expertise:
SOLID WASTE FACILITIES TASK FORCE MEETINGS
Community Voice
The Solid Waste Facilities Task Force has met several times to discuss the County’s existing Solid Waste Recycling and Transfer Facility at Port Townsend. They have come up with some ideas of their own for a rebuilt or replaced facility. They have also heard some ideas from the consultant team about how to solve some of the existing facility’s serious challenges. The survey that was just completed will provide excellent feedback to the Task Force.
Thank you to those who took the survey to provide the Task Force with your thoughts about the existing facility and what is important to you as this planning proceeds. We received 319 responses. The Task Force will consider the feedback in their upcoming workshops as they work with the consultant team to narrow the number of facility design alternatives being studied and discuss and evaluate potential locations for the replacement facility.
The summary of survey responses is available here. Also, stay connected for future surveys. If you would like to be notified when new surveys or other input opportunities are available, be sure to sign up on our email list.
We want to hear from you!
Fill out the form with any comments or questions and they will be addressed at our next task force meeting.
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