Dear Mr. Trejo.
I am writing this letter in response to a complaint I recently received from your office wherein you claim to have discovered items present upon my property located at 1629 Cloverdale Road that are supposedly in violation of State and County guidelines pertaining to solid waste storage and disposal as mandated per WAC 173-350 and Cowlitz County Code Title 15-30
( REF : Your case # SW 05-107 )
Your letter specifically lists exactly 4 items as being in violation, with those items consisting of the following :
(A) An "abandoned truck with no motor",
(B) "Tires",
(C) "Wood Pallets", and;
(D) "A piece of heavy machinery".
The letter was accompanied with photographs of the above mentioned items that are being considered by your office to be in violation.
For convienience, I will hereinafter address these issues separately, as being items ( A ) through ( D ) below.
Please refer to item (A):
The truck mentioned above, while admittedly not presently in operable condition, is currently in the process of being repaired.
In fact, fairly recently and at a considerable expense, I have overhauled a replacement engine in order to install into said truck when it becomes convenient for me to do so at some point in the future. As such, this truck should by no stretch of the imagination be considered to be "abandoned".
Furthermore, please note that "Junk Vehicles" are specifically addressed under Cowlitz County Code Title 10, beginning at Section 27, Para 010.
Most notably, under Title 10 section 27 Para 040, "three or more" "junk vehicles" must be accumulated upon a premises in order to constitute a violation.of the County Code.
Bearing into mind the above mentioned code, the inoperable truck does not in my opinion constitute a violation and so no further action on my part is planned at this point in time concerning it's ultimate disposition.
Still, if your office continues to allege this truck to be in violation of the WAC, County, or any other applicable codes, then I would expect you to provide me with the specific code citation by title, section and paragraph in any further correspondance, and then at that point in time I might revisit my decision.
Also, as it would be readily apparent the Cowlitz County Code as it is currently written conflicts with the applicable Washington Administrative Code, I suggest the County would be well advised to conduct a review and possible revision of the applicable code in order to bring it into compliance with the state guidelines as they apply to this particular situation or any other similar situations that may arise in the future.
Please refer to item (B)
Upon inspecting the area this morning, I did note there to be tires upon the premises. In fact, I found exactly two tires; both of which are in completely servicable condition. Indeed, both of these tires are in "as new" condition.
Upon reviewing WAC 173-350-100 ( "Definitions' ), I note that "waste tires" are very specifically described. I dare suggest your office should actually take the time to review and make itself more familiar with the applicable code as it pertains to waste tires before making claims as to any code violations regarding the legal handling and /or storage and disposal of tires in any quantity or condition.
However, considering that one of the tires and several other items belonging to the truck mentioned in (A ) above are currently being stored upon a wooden pallet and generally contribute to an overall appearance of clutter, the pallet containing these items has been moved to be closer to the truck, this in accordance with the community desire and in order that the general area will not appear to be quite as cluttered as it had before.
At this time, I have no further action planned concerning these two tires.
However, (and as before), if your office continues to believe that the presence of these tires somehow constitutes a code violation and can cite the specific code as to the exact Title, Section and Paragraph that these two tires supposedly violate, then I would gladly revisit my decision above as it regards properly storing and/or disposing of them. Perhaps I might even decide to move them inside, where they would no longer be in the view of passersby or code enforcement personnel whom apparently have nothing better to do while on duty other than to waste the public funds in making false and uninformed claims as to what constitutes "waste tires" and the proper storage and disposal thereof.
Please refer to item (C)
Wood pallets come in a variety of sizes, and are routinely used in the course of my business for the shipping and recieving of products to our customers. As I can't possibly know in advance what size of pallet might be required for any given shipment, it is then logical and reasonable to expect that some quantity of wooden pallets will of necessity accumulate upon the premises.
Often, these pallets are not neatly stacked, and sometimes they might even be held in storage for a long enough period of time for them to deteriorate somewhat due to outside weather conditions, even to the point of their being un-usable for their intended purpose .
Disposal of any deteriorated or unusable pallets has in the past consisted of my eventually sawing them into managable sized pieces, and then burning them in our home fireplace as a winter heating fuel.
Sorting of pallets usually takes place several times per year, in fact, any useable pallets have just recently been neatly stacked and those deemed as unservicable have been removed from the area for incineration.
Still, please bear in mind that some quantity of wooden pallets will inevitably always be present upon the property; and so as before, if the outdoor storage of some quantity of wooden pallets for shipping purposes or for eventual use as firewood somehow constitutes a code violation then I would appreciate if you could please specifically cite the applicable law by Title, Section and Paragraph.
And finally, please refer to item (D)
The item of "heavy machinery" is actually a farming implement. More specifically, it is a post hole auger that attaches to my tractor; and it is in completely servicable condition and it also happens to be a fairly valuable piece of equipment.
As such, I am left rather bewhildered, and as you could well imagine, I most certainly find your referring to the item as being a "solid waste violation" to be extremely bizarre.
Following your line of reasoning, I would suggest then that the county road shop just up the road from here currently has an approximately one acre site that is simply chock full of solid waste that is currently being improperly handled and so I should expect that immediate action will be taken on your part in order to force the agency into properly disposing of and / or storing any and all of the heavy machinery and /or equipment that is laying scattered about the premises, this regardless it's of actual value and notwithstanding the question of whether said heavy machinery it is in servicable condition or otherwise.
However, in the spirit of compliance, I have covered the above mentioned post hole auger with a plastic tarp and am planning to perhaps take a look at it in another few months in order to make sure that it hasn't somehow magically transformed itself into raw sewage, anthrax virus, radioactive materials; or anything else that might in actaulity comprise"waste" in some way, shape, or form.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any further concerns or questions regarding this matter. Otherwise I shall consider the case closed.
Kindest regards,
Samuel V. Lockwood