BEND, OR -- Deschutes County is still zeroing in on a location for a new landfill as Knott Landfill is expected to reach capacity in five years. The two final potential locations will be discussed at a meeting Tuesday, February 20th.

“Both have pluses and minuses still at this point,” Solid Waste Director Tim Brownell says both sites east of Bend present challenges and opportunities, “What we're looking at is over the next three years, there are land use review processes as well as a state permitting process with the Department of Environmental Quality. So, it's not a fast process and there will be many public hearings.”.

After an 18-month search, the Solid Waste Advisory Committee is near the finish line to select a location. “We're going to do an in-depth review at that meeting of all the different elements that were researched on the two sites. Then in the March meeting, we'll go into a lot of conversation answering questions both from the public and the SWAC members. We wanted to move through this committee by the end of April and then it'll take two months or so for the board of county commissioners to do their review, hold their public hearings and for them to make a selection, ideally by the end of June.” He tells KBND News one site would be cheaper to build but more expensive to operate, and the other, vice versa.

Estimates put the cost between $36-million and $64-million to develop, and another $8-million to $9-million to maintain.

Photo: Knott Landfill