Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Western Renewable Resources filed a request on Sept. 3 in Linn County Circuit Court seeking a judge’s ruling on whether its store of cardboard and plastic fibers should be considered waste or inventory with monetary value.
The fibers, primarily wood, plastic and paper from Weyerhaeuser, are stored on old Willamette Industries mill property at the north end of 24th Avenue. The land is owned by Western States Land Reliance Trust and leased to Western Renewable Resources.
Western Renewable Re-sources was required to have the material removed from the property by Aug. 31. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality claims that the material is waste. If it is waste, according to the city of Sweet Home, then the operation violates the city’s franchise agreement with Sweet Home Sanitation. The Planning Commission in May revoked the conditional use permit for the company.
Dan Desler, co-owner of Western Renewable Resources and managing trustee for the nonprofit WSLRT, insists that the material is inventory, with a value of some $900,000.
The company has a track record of six years of selling the material to prove it, and the company has secured a loan from Umpqua Bank based on the asset, Desler said. The DEQ has misclassified the material.
“We’re going to let a judge decide, because DEQ has planted their heels,” Desler said. Some of the fibers are recycled as bedding for livestock, but the largest part is converted to fuels for Oregon manufacturing entities, he said. Desler said he expects Asian markets to use the fuels as well, where the technology to cleanly burn the fibers is more advanced than in the United States, which relies on older technology already in place, like coal plants.
The material also makes a good base for compost, Desler said.
The inventory is encumbered by Umpqua Bank, according to the petition, but by the end of August the DEQ expected it to be removed, more than 1,000 truckloads, at Western Renewable’s expense.
The company has attempted to sell the inventory, but it was economically unfeasible to by the end of August, according to the petition. If the material is removed without compensation, Western Renewable will be liable to vendors and Umpqua Bank, and the business will cease. It also would “be unjustly liable for fines and costs of removal.”
The petition asks that a preliminary injunction against the removal of the material be entered until a hearing for a permanent injunction can be scheduled. It specifically seeks a declaratory judgment from the court to determine that the material “is not waste harmful to the public good” or “subject to the jurisdiction of the (DEQ).”
It also asks the court to declare that the forced removal of the material is a “regulatory taking,” for which Oregon law requires compensation.
No court dates had been set as of Sept. 5.
This issue is one of several that challenge Desler and his companies. The land is part of a proposed master plan that includes residential and commercial features throughout the area north of Highway 20 between 18th Avenue and Clark Mill Road.
Among the challenges Desler lists are the discovery of asbestos on the property and the state of the economy. WSLRT land also owes four years worth of property taxes totaling nearly $250,000. WSLRT also lost an uninsured building worth $2 million, he said, to arson in 2004.
WSLRT is close to raising the funds to pay its back taxes although the “check isn’t in the bank yet,” Desler said, and “we’re confident we’ll be able to deal with DEQ issues.
“In spite of the economy, we’re cautiously optimistic about our future and the future of Sweet Home.”
He is confident, he said, because “we’re doing it for the right reasons. I’m not running away from the problem. I’m confronting it.”