Last load to Arlington ends 19-year landfill mode

Empire Disposal trucks hauled their last load of Whitman County trash to the Waste Management landfill in Arlington, Ore., Friday as the county’s new waste disposal contract kicked in July 1.

County commissioners in March signed a contract with Regional Disposal Company to dispose of the county’s garbage. The new contract drops cost to the county from $68 a ton under the current contract to $53 a ton. With an average day loadout of more than four 23.5 tons trucks, Whitman County expects to save more than $400,000 under the new contract.

Waste Management had the previous contract and sub-contracted with Empire Disposal to haul Whitman County’s waste to the company’s mega-landfill in Arlington, Ore. Empire hauled the county’s trash for Waste Management for the past 19 years. Empire was purchased by Waste Connections in 2004.

Allied will take the county’s trash to its Spokane Valley transfer station where it will be loaded on a train and delivered to Regional Disposal’s landfill near Roosevelt.

Shorter truck trips are the main reason for savings, explained Mark Storey, county public works director.

The 436-mile round trip Arlington haul ate up about 100 gallons of diesel per trip, said Doug DeYoung with Empire’s Colfax headquarters.

“Now we’re down from about a two million-mile haul to about a half-million mile haul,” said DeYoung.

The reduced trucking miles also meant the loss of a job for six drivers who hauled for Empire Disposal. DeYoung said all but one have found new work.

Empire offered workers severance packages to keep them through the contract’s June 30 expiration.

Alvin Hall and Jerry Martin pulled out the last two Empire trucks Friday. The two had been making the Arlington run for Empire for a combined 16 and a half years.

Both got jobs with DeAtley, the Clarkston firm that will haul the county’s trash under a sub-contract with Regional Disposal.

“We’ll be alright. We’ve still got something to do,” said Martin. “We even kind of know how to do it.”

One other driver got a job with construction crews on the McCoy grain terminal project south of Rosalia. Another got a harvest job. DeYoung said one driver was retained by Empire.

The semi trucks used in the Arlington haul will be redeployed in other parts of Waste Connection’s operations, primarily on the west side of the state.

Storey said the savings under the new contract will be used to improve the landfill and transfer station on Carrothers Road and will lead to a reduction of the current $103 tipping fee, potentially as soon as next year.