While Georgetown residents waved protest signs at passing cars, other people were inside the Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie No. 1 questioning city officials about the smells and traffic congestion their proposed intermodal garbage transfer facility would bring to Georgetown.

Seattle Public Utilities sponsored a workshop in Georgetown last week to explain their plans for a truck-to-train garbage-handling facility. All garbage trucks in Seattle would bring their loads to the facility, where the garbage would be compacted and packed into containers for shipment by rail to a landfill in Eastern Oregon.

Seattle Public Utilities staff is reaching the end of the project's planning stage and is scheduled to present its plan to the Seattle City Council this month or next, said Tim Croll, director of the city's solid-waste program. The City Council aims to vote on the proposal by December. If approved, it could be in operation in 2010.

After looking at available properties around Seattle, the city utilities department narrowed the choice to four final sites for the facility. Engineers selected a site on Corgiat Drive South between Boeing Field and Interstate 5 as their preferred location. It's next to both the Union Pacific and Burlington-Northern-Santa Fe railroad lines. That provides access to three landfills, Croll said. Plus another rail line is fairly close by that goes to a fourth landfill.

Having an assortment of landfills forces the landfills to lower prices to attract customers and stay competitive, Croll said.

The site also is next to a long straight section of parallel train tracks where 6,000-foot-long trains could be assembled efficiently. One such train carrying only garbage from Seattle homes and businesses rolls out of the city destined for the Oregon landfill six days a week, Croll said. This despite the fact Seattle residents recycle about 41 percent of their trash.

Another advantage of the Corgiat Drive site is its proximity to Interstate 5, Croll said.

Several Georgetown residents raised concerns about the estimated 350 commercial garbage trucks from throughout the city that would bring their loads to the intermodal garbage facility every day. Most would arrive during the middle part of the day but trucks could be rolling in from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m.

People at the workshop were concerned about smells. Some odors could be suppressed by spraying mist in the facility, Croll said. A truck wash is planned where garbage trucks could be cleaned before leaving the transfer facility.

The trucks themselves would be equipped with exhaust systems built to meet 2007 clean-air standards, Croll said. A 2007 garbage truck will emit about 1 percent as much pollution as a garbage truck manufactured in 1980, he said.

Some people worried the train cars would stink. Croll said the train cars would be hauled away almost every day.

"We want no smell noticeable off-site," he said.

Besides congestion, odors and exhaust, people also were concerned about where garbage trucks would be allowed to go.

Seattle Public Utilities could prohibit garbage trucks from using residential streets in Georgetown except for weekly garbage pick-up. Such requirements could be written into the contracts between the city and private garbage collectors and enforced with global positioning satellite equipment installed in every truck.

A bicyclist asked if the city would be willing to spend more money on street maintenance in Georgetown due to the additional wear and tear to streets from garbage truck traffic.

"We moved to Georgetown to build our lives," a young woman said. "This project will squash what we've got going here."

She wondered why the previously rejected Harbor Island isn't the choice for the garbage transfer facility.

"Nobody's living there," she said.

The Port of Seattle once encouraged Seattle Public Utilities to build the intermodal solid-waste transfer facility on Harbor Island. Since then the Port's need for container yards increased along with the global economy, so now the Port would prefer to use the Harbor Island site for container storage, Croll said.

Besides, the Harbor Island site now seems too small for the facility, he added. The Port of Seattle created spots of new wildlife habitat along the water's edge on the western flank of the site, which restricts where buildings could be constructed, Croll added.

Some people at the workshop seemed resigned to the notion the new garbage-shipping facility will be built in Georgetown.

"This is going to go in whether we like it or not," said one man. He wanted to keep garbage trucks off Ellis Avenue South though.

"The word on the street is that this is a done deal," another man said.

Croll denied anything's been decided yet.

A woman pointed out that railroad tracks run north as well as south through Seattle, so why couldn't the intermodal solid-waste transfer facility be built in Interbay or some other North Seattle location?

Croll said the Union Pacific tracks go no farther north than Spokane Street. That limits the number of landfills available.

Another problem is there's often train congestion getting through the downtown train tunnel, he said.

Thirdly, there isn't enough space available in the Interbay area to build an intermodal solid-waste transfer facility, Croll said.

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