Most of the 9 percent of Clallam County’s waste that is produced in the West End is trucked outside of the county.
Garbage from Forks, Sekiu, Clallam Bay and the Clallam Bay Corrections Center is picked up by West Waste, which is owned by Brent Gagnon, and hauled to the Roosevelt Landfill in Klickitat County, said Tom McCabe, Port Angeles solid waste coordinator.
Forks started sending its garbage elsewhere about 10 years ago, he said.
Garbage from the Neah Bay area goes to the Makah landfill, McCabe said.
The Makah are building a transfer station but the trash’s destination hasn’t been decided yet, he said.
Currently, 91 percent of the county’s waste – about 70,000 annually – comes from central and eastern Clallam County, and is dumped into the Port Angeles Landfill at the end of West 18th Street.
Port Angeles is closing its landfill on Saturday and opening a transfer station on Tuesday.
After a routine closure on Sunday, the facility will be closed on Monday for the New Year’s Day holiday.
The difference between a landfill and a transfer station will not be apparent to customers who can take their trash there as they have always done.
But instead of being buried on site, the garbage will be trucked to Tacoma, taken by rail to Vancouver, Wash., and barged up the Columbia River to the Finley Butte Regional Landfill in Boardman, Ore.
A ribbon cutting is set for noon on Tuesday at the new transfer station.
