Snohomish County is still not accepting yard waste and clean wood at its three transfer station locations. It’s been over a year, and the ability to move it out fast enough is the reason.
During the Burlington Northern rail strikes in September 2022, yard waste piled up at transfer stations and intermingled with the garbage, causing all the waste to be treated as garbage. Snohomish County thought it was best to discontinue the acceptance of yard debris and clean wood to stop the contamination on Sept. 21, 2022.
Dave Schonhard, the county’s solid waste director, said last month the rail service has improved slightly but still not enough to start accepting yard waste.
“But even this week (week of Sept. 10), I was down to 31 containers, which isn’t even a full day’s worth of garbage service on the train,” Schonhard said.
Garbage hauler Republic Services provides the rail containers.
Schonhard said they have previously had service interruptions like this but only for a short time. Burlington Northern has lost personnel since the contract dispute with its unions. It has taken a while to build back those employee ranks. In addition, he said that the county has been transporting waste by rail since 1982, and with population booms since then, he believed that the rail system might have been reaching its tonnage capacity.
A combination of tonnage increase and lack of resources from the rail to move material is what Schonhard believes is the reason why transfer stations are not accepting yard waste.
Schonhard said he is unsure when transfer stations will start accepting yard waste again.
He said that next year, they will be working on a project to expand capacity at its facility.
Matt Phelps, the communications supervisor at Snohomish County Public Works, explained that the project will have two phases and will increase the available working track at the Waste-by-Rail Intermodal Facility by 65%.
Phase one will increase the length of the working track and capacity from 60 to 80 containers per switch. It will take an estimated three months, with completion in June 2024.
Phase two will add pavement to provide access to 715 feet of existing tracks, increasing capacity from 80 to 99 containers per switch. It will also offer more on-site container storage. The estimated completion for this phase of the project is December 2024. There is still a long way to go until transfer stations will take yard waste again.
For now, Snohomish County has a list of facilities accepting yard waste for customers.
These include:
• Pacific Topsoils Smith Isl., 3000 Frontage Road, Everett
• Pacific Topsoils Mill Creek, 13517 35th Ave. SE, Mill Creek
• Pacific Topsoils Maltby, 8616 219th St. SE, Woodinville
• Cedar Grove - Everett, 3620 36th Place NE, Everett
• Riverside Topsoil, 7404 Lowell-Snohomish River Road, Snohomish
