Nearly 100 south King County residents made it clear they oppose an expansion of the Cedar Hills landfill during a special King County Council meeting Wednesday.
The landfill serves about 2.2 million people and received more than 800,000 tons of solid waste last year. The 920-acre dump is expected to reach its design capacity by 2025.
David Vogel lives near the landfill and said he has found surprises from the landfill in his yard.
“This is a biohazard bag with human blood in it,” Vogel said, as he held the bag up during Wednesday’s meeting. “If you are living next to it, or even if you aren’t, how would you like to find this in your yard?"
Vogel said eagles often scavenge the waste at the Cedar Hills landfill and drop off whatever they don't want around his house.
"This is like the third or fourth reiteration of, ‘we are going to close it down, no we are now going to expand it,’" Vogel said.
King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn has publicly opposed expanding the landfill and wants to seek other options like shipping waste somewhere else.
Another option that has been discussed is building a waste to energy facility that would incinerate the garbage and generate energy.
If expanded, the landfill would grow by about 56 acres and extend its life to approximately 2030. The council still needs to vote on what to do.
"And the final solution is not to continue the landfill," Vogel said.