If Georgetown residents and business owners succeed in their lobbying effort to get Georgetown off the list as a possible site for the city's future garbage transfer facility, planners could reconsider putting it near the West Seattle Bridge.

Seattle Public Utilities completed a long study of four possible sites for a large, enclosed building where garbage trucks would deliver their loads. The garbage would be compacted and loaded into shipping containers to be set on rail cars for shipment to an Eastern Oregon landfill.

Seattle's garbage fills about 50 containers per day, according to Tim Croll, director of the solid waste program at Seattle Public Utilities.

The agency began its search for a location with 1,000 possible sites, Croll said. Those were whittled down to four.

Two of the proposed sites for the "intermodal solid-waste transfer facility" were in Georgetown. Two other possible sites were adjacent to each other on Harbor Island, by the old Fisher flour mill on the southwestern side of the island.

The city's study concluded one of the Georgetown sites would be best. It's on a long narrow slice of land between Interstate 5 and Boeing Field.

The Georgetown Community Council has been trying to convince the Seattle City Council to drop it from consideration. The Georgetown Neighborhood Website claims the project would be built "in the heart of our neighborhood."

The proposed site is industrial land between South Corgiat Drive and the railroad tracks that run along the northeastern side of Boeing Field. There are a few windowless warehouses nearby, some of which would be torn down. One of them is used by the band Pearl Jam as a rehearsal studio. Nine businesses would be displaced. However there are no houses anywhere around.

The Georgetown Community Council says the nearest residence is about 600 feet away. An apartment building is visible north of the site on the other side of the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe, Sound Transit and Union Pacific railroad tracks. One advantage of the Corgiat site is it is next to a long, straight section of tracks. Rail car loads of solid waste could be gradually added to the train until it is more than a mile long.

Beyond the site can be seen the top of Georgetown City Hall. The Georgetown group also worries that ground vibration from about 350 passing garbage trucks per day would threaten renovation of the old City Hall. The trucks would drive past the building's east and north walls going to and from the Corson Avenue on-ramp to Interstate 5.

Garbage trucks not serving the Georgetown area would be required to use specific routes to and from the facility. The trucks would be equipped with global positioning equipment that would track their whereabouts. Companies whose trucks wander into residential neighborhoods would be fined, Croll said.

The Georgetown Community Council also argued that the community has suffered enough.

"This is a social and environmental justice issue," wrote the Georgetown Community Council in February

"This neighborhood is already significantly impactedby social and environmental influences including sound and air pollution from King County International Airport/Boeing Field, the Duwamish River Superfund site, underground water contamination from Phillips Services, traffic and truck related noise and diesel pollution and toxic releases from a myriad of industrial applications centered blocks from our residential core. In addition, this diverse and determined residential neighborhood struggles daily with influences of drugs, prostitution and crime, a disproportionate share of Seattle and King County's registered sex offenders, and lack of adequate financial means and community services.

"We have already accepted our share of Seattle's burdens and are not willing to roll over and accept the location of the city's new intermodal transfer facility in our neighborhood.

Seattle Public Utilities also intends to upgrade the South Transfer Station near South Park.

The structure was built in 1965, when such buildings were designed with gaps to enhance the inside-outside air exchange. Today garbage facilities in urban areas are enclosed to control odors and better manage waste.

Forty years ago, Seattle wasn't so concerned about compacting garbage for efficiency. The South Transfer Station has a large pit inside where people dump trash. A bulldozer pushed the trash to one end of the pit where it dropped into waiting open trailers for a trip to a landfill.

A compacting shed was built on the side of the South Transfer Station and a hole was cut through the wall. So now the bulldozer must push the piles of trash and make a 90-degree turn to shove it through the hole in the wall into the compacting shed.

A new transfer station could be engineered to handle compaction and containers, Croll said.

Another concern about the South Transfer Station is its ability to withstand an earthquake, he said.

Seattle is more vulnerable to earthquake than other acts of nature. If the South Transfer Station were damaged in a quake, debris could become a major problem.

Additionally, there is no garage or shop at the transfer station where trucks and other vehicles can be serviced. Truck maintenance and repairs are done outdoors.

Tim St. Clair can be contacted at tstclair@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.

Correction:

In the June 28 edition of the West Seattle Herald in print and on the web about the proposed intermodal garbage transfer facility we attributed the wrong job title to Tim Croll. He is director of the solid waste program at Seattle Public Utilities. Chuck Clarke is director of Seattle Public Utilities. The correction has been made in this online version of the story.