BEAVER HILL — It’s time for the county to start thinking about where it is going to put its garbage, since space is getting tight at the Beaver Hill incineration facility.

There are three possibilities for the future of the Beaver Hill Disposal Site: dig another cell or trench for burying ash, use the dump as a transfer station to truck garbage elsewhere, or close it.

“What is going to happen when this one is full?” asked Human Resources Director Steve Allen, who used to manage the dump.

County Commissioners Nikki Whitty and Bob Main approved a request last week to prepare a $38,000 contract to get help answering the question.

The Seattle-based URS Corporation will evaluate the condition of the Beaver Hill facility and explore alternatives for long-term disposal of the county’s solid waste. The department sent out a request to six firms in September for consulting proposals. URS Corporation was the only one to respond.

The current lined ash trench at Beaver Hill, located off U.S. Highway 101 north of Bandon, likely will be full by 2012. Solid Waste Business Operations Manager Cheryl Westgaard said the county would like information on options by early 2010.

“The information will be used as a guide for operations for how to manage the site for the next 10 to 20 years,” said Allen, who worked for the site for 22 years and was the director before transferring in 2002. “We need to start putting systems into place.”

Westgaard said consultants likely will consider whether to add another giant pit to the current ash trenches. That would involve analyzing the condition of the three incinerators.

“We would have to make sure they are in good enough condition to last another 10 years,” Westgaard said.

The second possibility is turning Beaver Hill into a transfer station, where garbage would be taken before being transferred with by long-haul truck out-of-county — most likely to Coffin Butte Landfill in Corvallis.  

Lastly, the county could close all facilities, turning operations over to a private company.

“The county would have no say,” Westgaard said. “Somebody else would take over.”

The current solid waste management plan was written in 1994, but the county has been incinerating trash since the 1970s. The first incinerators were used at the old landfill in Bandon. Before then, solid waste was taken to the unlined Joe Ney Landfill, which accepts only construction debris now.

Beaver Hill and Joe Ney, with 13 full-time employees, costs roughly $2 million a year to operate and bring in just over that amount in revenue, breaking about even. Each year solid waste puts $91,000 into a closure account, while the county adds another $110,000.

If the dump were to close, in compliance with state law, the county would be required to monitor the site for 30 years. Allen estimated closing and monitoring costs would come to between $7 million and $10 million. 

“These are all alternatives that will be given to the commissioners and solid waste advisory committee,” Westgaard said. “It’s just a starting point as to what needs to be done.”