Benton County Commissioner Pat Malone will chair a new state task force focused on municipal solid waste management in the Willamette Valley, Gov. Tina Kotek announced.
Malone learned of his appointment just before Thanksgiving when he encountered the governor at the Association of Oregon Counties annual conference in Eugene.
The Task Force on Municipal Solid Waste in the Willamette Valley will build upon work completed in July by the Regional Sustainable Materials Management Plan Task Force, which Benton County convened in 2024.
The 12-member body includes eight voting members appointed by Kotek and four nonvoting legislative members serving in an advisory capacity. Kristan Mitchell of the Oregon Refuse and Recycling Association will serve as vice chair.
Other voting members include Courtney Flathers from the governor’s office; Julie Jackson of Republic Services; Brian May from Marion County Public Works; environmental representatives Celeste Meiffren-Swango and Crystal Weston from the Oregon Environmental Council; and Jason Williams, public works director for the city of Lebanon.
Legislative members are Rep. Ed Diehl (R-House District 17), Rep. Sarah Finger McDonald (D-House District 16), Sen. Courtney Neron Misslin (D-Senate District 13) and Sen. Todd Nash (R-Senate District 29).
Staff support will come from Erin Pischke and Beth Reiley of the state’s Legislative Policy and Research Office.
The task force was scheduled to hold its first meeting Wednesday in Salem. After a year of work, members must submit a report by Dec. 15, 2026, to interim Legislative Assembly committees related to the environment. The report may include legislative recommendations. The task force sunsets at the end of next year.
Malone, a tree farmer from Kings Valley in his second term as a county commissioner, has worked on regional solid waste issues for more than four years, beginning with Benton County Talks Trash before joining the SMMP task force.
“The clock is ticking — we don’t have a lot of time to put a real, long-term solution in place for this region,” Malone said.
He noted that siting and building a solid waste transfer station typically takes about a decade — roughly the remaining lifespan of the Coffin Butte landfill.
The SMMP Task Force recommended building new transfer stations in Benton, Linn, Marion and Polk counties, with Tillamook, Lincoln and Yamhill counties also participating in the plan.
Transfer stations can significantly boost waste recovery rates — the percentage of total waste diverted from landfills through reuse, recycling, composting and energy recovery. Lane County leads the state with a 52% recovery rate, expected to reach at least 63% when its CleanLane Resource Recovery Facility opens.
Benton County’s recovery rate stood at 31.5% in the most recent 2022 data. The county aims to reach 44%.
Polk County recently approved zoning for a new transfer facility at the former Rickreall Dairy site, culminating an effort that began about eight years ago. Additional permits are still required before construction can begin.
Malone expressed optimism about the state task force’s potential, citing the SMMP group’s accomplishments in less than a year.
“Some of the task force worked on SMMP, and the state staffers are really savvy, so people are warmed up — we’re not starting from zero,” he said. “We’ll cover a lot of ground in a year, and we’ll keep asking ‘How can we keep things going?'”