Cowlitz County commissioners will wait an extra week before deciding whether to make an offer on the Headquarters Road landfill near Toutle.

The county is investigating buying the 300-acre landfill from Weyerhaeuser Co., and has to decide whether to make a formal offer.

Commissioners had planned to make their official decision Oct. 27, but scheduling conflicts have pushed back the meetings they need to have before taking a vote. Weyerhaeuser also delayed its own deadline for offers to mid-November, which meant delaying the commission vote for a week doesn’t delay the overall process, Commission Chairman George Raiter said Tuesday.

Commissioners will now decide at their Nov. 3 meeting, Raiter said.

Raiter said Monday the county wouldn’t offer a specific price to Weyerhaeuser but rather ask to begin negotiating if the other two commissioners agree it’s a good idea to continue.

County employees are evaluating the pros and cons of buying the landfill to use instead of shipping the county’s trash to Eastern Washington landfills. Initial calculations estimate the county could save $1 million by keeping its waste in Cowlitz County. Buying the landfill assumes it could be re-permitted to accept municipal waste in addition to the industrial waste already stored there. Raiter said it’s safe to assume whoever buys the landfill will ask for the permit change.

Some residents say having public control is the best situation rather than having Weyerhaeuser sell to a private company.

Others, though, are fiercely opposed to the idea that the landfill might accept municipal waste. Weyerhaeuser promised it would only bury industrial waste at the site when it built the landfill. Silver Lake-area residents — who opposed the landfill to begin with — are outraged at what they see as violation of that promise by selling it to someone else.

Weyerhaeuser officials have said the company wants to sell the landfill to focus on “core properties” but would still plan to dispose of its industrial waste there through a contract with the new owners.

No exact sale date has been set. Raiter said Weyerhaeuser would like to close the deal by the end of the year, but he said that’s unlikely given the delay.

Related articles:

County interested in landfill, not 'bidding war'  (Sept. 16)

County's interest in landfill praised  (Aug. 26)

County eyeing Weyerhaeuser landfill  (Aug. 16)

Toutle dumps on landfill idea  (Aug. 5)