Petitions with more than 1200 signatures were delivered to the Everett City Council against expansion of Cedar Grove
At Wednesday’s Everett City Council meeting, The Mayor of Marysville, Jon Nehring and the Chair of the Tulalip Tribes, Mel Sheldon, personally delivered a letter to Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson and the Everett City Council regarding Cedar Grove Composting and their desire to expand operations at their north Everett facility. Cedar Grove is being blamed for causing very foul smells that drift over north Everett, Tulalip and Marysville, especially in the summer months and people are not happy about an expansion of the plant. Here’s the text of the letter…
Dear Mayor Stephanson and City of Everett Councilmembers:
On behalf of the City of Marysville and the Tulalip Tribes, we request your attention in addressing a serious problem afflicting our communities. The regional yard and food waste operations conducted at Cedar Grove Composting located within the city of Everett have created significant environmental concerns for our community members. We ask for your diligence in ensuring that existing operations be monitored closely to ensure compliance with existing regulations and permit conditions to control impacts to neighboring areas.
In addition, we are aware of Cedar Grove’s plans to expand their site use and operations. The preliminary application materials suggest a significant increase to their waste processing operations. We are very concerned that this may result in a corresponding increase in air, water, and land impacts to north Everett and areas north of Everett. We request that the City of Everett conduct a full Environmental Impact Statement under the State Environmental Policy Act on the permit application submitted by Cedar Grove Composting at its Smith Island site in Everett. We believe that the environmental impacts – to land, air, water, and species – are potentially significant and should warrant a full and thorough review and public process.
Besides a number of listed endangered species in the adjacent ecosystem, there are additional concerns about wetland mitigation, habitat restoration, traffic and transportation impacts, overall footprint, water quality, air quality and widespread odor problems associated with Cedar Grove’s Smith Island facility.
As you know, both the City of Marysville and the Tulalip Tribes have become parties of record to Cedar Grove’s permit application. As deeply interested parties, we are requesting a substantial and thorough review of the environmental issues through a formal EIS.
We appreciate your consideration of this important issue and look forward to a response.
The letter was signed by both Nearing and Sheldon. The city of Everett is a co-lead on the project along with the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. My Everett News would like to direct you to an entire web page covering actions with Cedar Grove’s application. A decision is not expected for some time.
Cedar Grove is currently appealing (3) three notices of violation related to nuisance odors issued against the company’s Everett location for 2009-2010. (along with 14 from their Maple Valley facility) Here is a link to information about that and what the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is doing about monitoring the facility right now.
April 22, 2011
Everett Government