OPINION:
Cities and counties across America are facing severe budget crunches. Inflationary pressures and dwindling federal support mean local governments must be incredibly prudent with taxpayer dollars.
Unfortunately, Lane County leaders in Oregon seem to have missed the memo. The county’s $150 million CleanLane mixed-use recycling and waste-management facility is rapidly turning into a taxpayer-funded dumpster fire. Paired with a highly unfavorable contract with Bulk Handling Systems (BHS), the project threatens to overwhelm the county’s finances while citizens foot the bill.
Municipalities are currently being financially squeezed from all sides. Federal funds, which typically account for 6% to 8% of total county revenues, are projected to shrink significantly. According to the National Association of Counties, this shift forces local governments to weigh painful tradeoffs: cutting critical public health and emergency services, delaying infrastructure projects, or raising local taxes and fees.
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The financial outlook is grim nationwide. Since January 2025, at least 20 of the nation’s 25 most populous cities have reported budget shortfalls for the 2026 fiscal year. At a time when operational costs for waste collection and processing are soaring due to higher fuel, labor, and technology expenses, municipalities simply cannot afford to gamble on poorly planned vanity projects.
Yet, Lane County ignored these fiscal realities. In December 2023, the county approved a lucrative contract with BHS to construct and operate CleanLane. The terms of this agreement are astonishingly lopsided, socializing the risk while virtually guaranteeing corporate payouts.
Lane County agreed to pay BHS for a minimum of 120,000 tons of waste annually at $78.69 per ton. The problem? The county is nowhere near that volume. Throughout 2025, Lane County collected just 78,356 tons of garbage. This 40,000-ton shortfall translates to nearly $3.3 million in wasted fees that taxpayers would be forced to swallow if the facility were operational today.
Adding insult to injury, the contract exposes Lane County to a potential $12,000-per day penalty for construction delays, although county officials dispute liability and maintain that the delays were caused by land-use appeals.
How did the county fall so far behind schedule? Staggeringly sloppy planning. Lane County leaders purchased a site in Goshen for $1.5 million before securing the necessary “special use permit” required to place a waste management facility in a light industrial zone. Unsurprisingly, the permit was denied.
Rather than accept the decision and pivot responsibly, the county wasted nearly $275,000 in legal fees fighting it through appeals boards, court systems, and the state legislature—losing at every turn. Now, they have spent roughly $1.2 million studying alternative locations, such as the Short Mountain landfill site.
Furthermore, the advertised $150 million price tag is deeply misleading.
The projected financing costs include approximately $23.6 million in interest on the county’s planned $35 million borrowing.
The tragic irony is that the warning signs were flashing bright red long before Lane County signed on the dotted line. Multiple mixed-waste facilities built or equipped by BHS have severely underperformed or collapsed nationwide:
• Hampden, Maine: A $90 million BHS-equipped plant closed in May 2020 after running out of money. It was plagued by higher-than-expected costs and a massive revenue shortfall.
• Montgomery, Alabama: The $35 million Infinitus Renewable Energy Park (IREP) closed after just 18 months in 2015 due to low waste volumes and depressed commodity prices. The city was left liable for roughly $29 million in guaranteed debt.
• Moncks Corner, South Carolina: A $43 million BHS-built facility failed to meet its 70% diversion target or generate enough commodity sales to trigger profit-sharing payouts, stalling Berkeley County’s recycling investments.
Maine, Alabama, and South Carolina should have served as undeniable cautionary tales. Instead, Lane County leaders charged blindly ahead, ignoring the lessons of the past to sign a catastrophic deal. When local governments fail to do their due diligence with waste management planning, whole communities suffer the financial consequences.
Lane County taxpayers deserve answers, accountability, and an immediate intervention before this dumpster fire consumes the county’s future.
Mike Andrews is a Washington, D.C. based attorney and former federal prosecutor.
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