Metro hired Jacobs Engineering Group to research how other jurisdictions regulate compost facilities and then provide Metro with recommendations to inform the development of region-wide compost facility standards. The project was intended to build on the information that Metro received in a report by Green Mountain Technologies from its previous assessment of a local compost facility regulated by Metro, Grimm’s Fuel Company.
The completed report focuses on these criteria:
- Compost facility site operation standards (e.g. processing capacity, dust control, and odor management) and tier structures for regulating compost facilities
- Compost pile size and mass requirements
- Product quality standards for finished compost
- Opportunities for supporting compost market development.
Jacobs completed its final report in the spring of 2020 and Metro is evaluating the information in consultation with government partners, including the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. Additional research may be needed to inform the development of regional compost facility standards. The report findings include a variety of competing practices, performance standards and enforcement mechanisms. Two areas of concern covered in the report, odor management and contamination, contain an especially wide range of approaches.