Underground fire, harmful fumes prompt cleanup plan for Yakima landfill

On a rainy day in January, Nancy Lust was watching a truck unload at the Anderson Landfill, right near her home in Yakima.

“So, I get out of my car, and the stench was just overpowering,” Lust said.

She needed to get away from that smell, she said, and it was pouring. So she ducked into a porta potty. “And I noticed the air quality inside the porta potty was better than the air quality outside the porta potty. That was a defining moment for me,” Lust said.

Lust and her neighbors near Yakima’s Rocky Creek Road have fought for years to learn more about what’s going into the Anderson Landfill, also known as the DTG Landfill.

It’s supposed to take construction materials. But neighbors say the facility accepts other trash, too – possibly causing fires and extra pollution.

Those concerns have drawn the attention of the Washington Department of Ecology.