Hillsboro: DEQ Takes Comments Through Nov. 24 on Garbage Transfer Station Permit Renewal
- The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is taking written comments through 5 p.m.
- At a transfer station, collection trucks unload and the waste is reloaded for the trip to a disposal site.
- That operation now runs under a permit that expired Dec.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is taking written comments through 5 p.m. Nov. 24 on a proposal to renew the solid waste permit for Hillsboro Garbage and Disposal’s transfer station on SW Minter Bridge Road. DEQ posted the public notice and draft permit on Oct. 23, together with a staff evaluation report.
At a transfer station, collection trucks unload and the waste is reloaded for the trip to a disposal site. According to the notice, the facility at 4945 SW Minter Bridge Road accepts residential and commercial garbage only from the company’s own trucks and is closed to the public. Workers inspect each load on the tipping floor, then load it into trailers bound for a DEQ-approved disposal site.
Running on a permit that expired in 2025
That operation now runs under a permit that expired Dec. 1, 2025. The notice says the company filed a timely and complete renewal application, which DEQ received Nov. 25, 2025, and that this lets the facility keep operating under the expired permit until DEQ decides.
DEQ’s evaluation report says the permit, No. 403, was first issued April 21, 1994, and last renewed in January 2016. In its renewal application, posted on Your DEQ Online, the company estimated it would receive 27,394.33 tons of solid waste a year. Spread over 365 days, that is about 75 tons a day, by our calculation.
The station occupies the southern part of a 19.73-acre property outside the urban growth boundary, zoned rural industrial by Washington County. The report lists the Tualatin River and farmland to the north, a tree farm to the west, and homes and SW Grabel Road to the south. The truck gate is open 3:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, only two trucks on short commercial routes unload on Saturdays, and the site is closed Sundays.
What the draft permit covers
Those operations are what the draft permit would govern. The notice, the draft and the evaluation report do not list what would change from the 2016 permit, and the facility’s permit record on Your DEQ Online shows no posted permit documents to compare against. Here is what the draft sets out.
| Topic | What DEQ’s documents show |
|---|---|
| Waste allowed | Solid waste for transfer; no special wastes approved |
| Waste barred | Includes hazardous and radioactive waste, PCBs, abandoned vehicles, large appliances, used oil, lead-acid batteries and covered electronics |
| Tires | No more than 100 waste tires stored on site |
| Odor and litter | Remove waste often enough to prevent odors; keep the site “virtually free of litter” |
| Complaints | Contact the complainant within 24 hours; report to DEQ after odor, litter or dust complaints from five sources in a week, or an odor event lasting over 24 hours |
| Fires | Put out and report to DEQ within 24 hours |
| Financial assurance | Exempt; DEQ rates the site low-risk |
| New end date | Left blank in the draft |
DEQ’s report says the financial assurance exemption rests on the types of waste and the fact that waste is not deposited permanently at the site. Staff will review it when the permit is modified or renewed.
The record in DEQ’s report
The same report lays out the facility’s compliance history in two parts. Under the solid waste permit, DEQ sent a warning letter in 2019 for failing to submit a timely update to the operations plan. Inspections in 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023 found no solid waste permit violations, and DEQ inspected again on April 22, 2026.
The site’s industrial stormwater permit, known as 1200-Z, carries a longer list. DEQ’s water quality program sent multiple warning letters between 2018 and 2025 for monitoring and reporting violations, breaches of the site’s stormwater plan and missed corrective action requirements, and it issued a civil penalty in 2025. The report says the facility “has corrected violations and is in compliance,” but it does not give the penalty amount. DEQ’s permit records show new 1200-Z coverage issued July 29, 2026, running through June 30, 2031.
The report also screened the area around the site. It counts 208 people living within a mile, with 13% of households low-income, and finds no environmental indicators above the 85th percentile for Oregon. Two of 13 environmental justice indexes rank above the 60th percentile: hazardous waste proximity at 61 and wastewater discharge at 63.
How to send DEQ a comment
Residents who want a say on those conditions have three ways to reach DEQ before 5 p.m. Nov. 24:
- Online: open the Comments tab on record 25992 in Your DEQ Online. No account is needed, contact details are optional, and the box takes up to 4,000 characters. DEQ’s comment guide says adding an attachment requires an account.
- By mail: Solid Waste Permit Coordinator, Oregon DEQ, 700 NE Multnomah St. Ste 600, Portland, OR 97232.
- By email: the notice links to [email protected]. The draft permit and evaluation report instead list [email protected], and the documents do not explain the difference.
- To view files in person: the notice names permit writer Anne Kim, at 503-875-5843 or [email protected].
The Oct. 23 notice does not schedule a public hearing or say how to request one. DEQ says it will consider and respond to every comment and may change the draft, but only within its rules and statutes. In the end, the notice says, “if a facility meets all legal requirements, DEQ will issue the facility’s permit.”
Top image: Illustrative image, 2017: the tipping floor of Seattle’s North Transfer Station (not the Hillsboro facility). Photo: SounderBruce, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
