St. John’s Landfill

Categories: Newspaper Articles
Web Sites
Portland City Archives Database
Oregon Historical Society
Metro

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

Binole, Gina, “Gas From Landfill Trash Will Fire Up Local Cement Kilns,” Business Journal, June 29, 1998.
Briefly summarizes the “Fueling the Future” article from the Metro web site.

Fitzgibbon, Joe, “Erosion is Nibbling Away at St. John’s Landfill,” Oregonian, August 6, 1999.
My favorite article because it talks about Dennis O’Neil of Metro who I’ve talked with and wrote an excellent pamphlet about the St. John’s Landfill . Includes a timeline of events and a concise, overall analysis of relevant topics; closure, erosion, and the landfill’s relationship to Slough.

Schement, Elisa, “St. John’s Landfill Gets A New Use,” Oregonian, June 26, 1998.
Briefly summarizes the “Fueling the Future” article which is listed in the web site section.

WEB SITES

“Fueling the Future: St. John’s Landfill Gas Pipeline,” Metro, August 13, 1997, www.metro-region.org/metro/merc/facility.html
Detailed description of how the closed landfill produces methane gas, how the rights to the gas were sold to Ash Grove Cement Co., and what environmental impacts this has. Includes current information.

“Smith and Bybee Lakes Wildlife Area,” Metro, Updated July 28,1997 www.multnomah.nb.or.us/metro/parks/smithmap.html
Map of Smith and Bybee lakes and the surrounding streets.

“St. John’s Landfill Closure and Monitoring,” Metro: About Closed Landfills, Sept. 9, 1997,
www.metro-region.org/rem/waste/landfill.html
Explains the landfill closure, steps necessary to close it properly, and hort and long term monitoring effects.

“St. John’s Landfill Gets A New Use,” Metro, June 26, 1998,
www.oregonlive.com/todaysnews/9806/st062614.html
Brief summary of the landfill-to-industry pipeline discussed in the “Fueling the Future” article.

“St. John’s Landfill Groundwater Modeling System”
www.ce.pdx.edu/~snuguang/research/landfill
A colorful migration of chloride plume with contaminant transport charts. The plume is a moving chart!!

CITY ARCHIVES DATABASE

City Archives Database, Council Documents 114: 1931-39, Garbage disposal, Ordinances, and resolutions, Petitions 1930-1931, 4/2, Series #2001-09.
This file box contained personal letters from citizens, homeowners, business owners, etc. about whether or not the landfill should be built in the St. John’s area. It gave me a sense of how people at the time felt about the landfill. Also contained documents from the City Council and the Dept. of Public Work discussing proposals related to the landfill.

City Archives Database, Planning, Maps and Plans (Archival Series), Series 7700-05.

OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY Vertical Files

League of Women Voters, “North Portland: Where It’s At,” Oregon Historical Society Vertical File, Portland Neighborhoods (St. John’s), Feb 1975.
This was the earliest information I found. Metro took over in 1980 and there is a lot of information provided by Metro after that time. Tells about the future plans for the landfill.

METRO

O’Neil, Dennis, “St. John’s Landfill: Present and Future,” November 1983.
A detailed brochure written by the man in charge of the Solid Waste Department at Metro. It is very informative with a brief history, environmental impacts, status of the methane gas recovery project, closure, etc. One of my previously listed Oregonian articles featured Dennis O’Neil and he is my personal contact at Metro. The only drawback is that this was written in 1983.