Spring cleanup may use a chipper this year

The annual spring cleanup this year is going to look a lot different.

At the March 2 Regional Board of Mayors meeting, Electric City Mayor Diane Kohout told the other mayors that, although they weren’t approved for a Department of Ecology grant to perform the usual spring cleanup this year, they could get a grant towards renting or purchasing a wood chipper.

The group discussed at some length how it might work, with the general idea being for a crew to park a chipper near one of the refuse trailers at the Delano Regional Transfer Station and for that crew to help residents throw their yard waste into the chipper.

One possibility would be for a day designated for each town. On Grand Coulee’s day, residents could come, show proof of residency, have their yard waste chipped. Residents of Electric City would have another day, as would Coulee Dam and Elmer City.

A stipulation of the DOE grant towards a chipper is that the waste needs to be recycled. There’s a place in Quincy that would take it.

The group agreed to look into the opportunity further, and hopefully to make a decision at their April 6 meeting.

Kohout told The Star on March 21 that the chipper event is looking likely, but that it may not happen until May. More details may be sorted out at the next RBOM meeting.

She also said that roadside pickup isn’t ruled out as an option yet, and that cities could elect to pick up yard waste for those who can’t haul it themselves, piling it up at the transfer station for a company to chip when they arrive.

In the past, cleanups included free self-haul to the transfer station with some cities offering curbside pickup as well.

Last year, the situation changed. At one time, local residents’ brush and tree trimmings were actually burned after the traditional spring cleanup, but pollution laws don’t allow for that now.

Also in the past, the landfill in Ephrata, where the waste is taken, had allowed for free dumping of yard waste tonnage during cleanup week, but changes there won’t allow that anymore. Kohout explained last year that county employees there were confused as to how it had ever been free in the past because it’s viewed as a “gifting of government funds.”

Last year, the RBOM secured a DOE grant that paid for the normal spring cleanup, but the group was not approved for this year leading them to explore the chipper option.