Deschutes County starts process to select landfill site all over again

By Kathryn Styer Martínez (OPB)
May 8, 2025 8:06 p.m.

An earlier deal fell through in the effort to build Oregon’s first new landfill in more than 30 years.

A mound of garbage at the Knott Landfill in Deschutes County, which is nearing capacity and must be replaced.

A mound of garbage at the Knott Landfill in Deschutes County, which is nearing capacity and must be replaced.

Joni Land / OPB

A Deschutes County committee has been called back to come up with more recommendations for where to build the next county landfill — Oregon’s first new landfill in over three decades.

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The county needs to choose a new landfill because the current one, Knott Landfill in Bend, is expected to reach capacity in 2031.

The Solid Waste Advisory Committee had already recommended a site, known as Moon Pit and located on the east side of the county. But negotiations for the county to buy Moon Pit fell through earlier this year.

At a public meeting in March, Deschutes County counsel Stephanie Marshall said the deal fell through for a number of reasons but mostly because of a “desire for a very quick closing on the part of the seller” she said “and not enough time or ability for the county to conduct its due diligence.”

At that meeting, the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners directed county staff to reconvene the solid waste advisory committee. Committee members had not recommended a backup site in case the Moon Pit deal fell through.

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Now the project to build a new landfill is pressed for time. According to a 2023 timeline, the department allocated four years, 2024 to 2027, to purchase and permit a new property. The county could reconsider a site from the earlier search, called Roth East, located farther south and east of Moon Pit, but other properties could also be in the mix.

During the earlier conversations, concerns about sage grouse habitats at the Roth East site made Moon Pit seem like a better option, among other reasons. Deschutes County Solid Waste Director Tim Brownell said sage grouse habitat maps have changed and a previously identified golden eagle nest is far enough away that it won’t require environmental mitigation.

The solid waste committee is also considering smaller sites that would last 80 years instead of 100 years.

Now, out of 31 sites that were part of an initial search, four to six new locations will be considered in addition to the Roth East location, Brownell said. According to county documents, a point system was used to disqualify sites that didn’t meet extensive criteria concerning land use, the natural environment and engineering.

One of the reasons the Moon Pit site was desirable – and another possible reason for the deal’s demise – was the water availability. Sellers intended to retain the water rights and lease the water to the county at an unspecified rate. Water is needed to maintain any landfill, and none of the new sites to be considered have the same level of water availability that Moon Pit had.

As county leaders get ready to undertake a new review and selection process, they will be going about the work differently. This time, the county will consider multiple sites that have a secure path towards purchase, Brownell said, “meaning we have a real memorandum of understanding and letter of intent, if not an already negotiated purchase sale agreement.”

Brownell said “the County has spent approximately $1.15 million on the process to date,” and the cost to reevaluate new sites could be anywhere from about $80,000 to a few hundred thousand dollars.

But when considering the $50 million price tag to build a new landfill, the setback is nearly a rounding error.

According to documents presented at this week’s meeting, the solid waste advisory group is scheduled to make a new site selection in spring of 2026, and they are hoping to have construction completed in 2030. That’s just in time for the current landfill to reach capacity.

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