PrecisionMachinisT wrote:
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


How successful you are is going to depend a lot on how your property is
zoned.

In my area a lot of properties 5 acres were rezoned from agricultural
to country residential. That brought them into a bunch of regulations
concerning equipment and refuse. In short everything needs to be in a
building or in some cases a fenced area that blocks the view from the
road or other houses. Same rule applies to commercial vehicles parked
in residential area.

If your area is being built up as residential you might be best off by
building a fenced area adjacent to your shop. Often if its not visible
from the road or other houses the required regulations are being met. A
fence may also be cheaper than a court case.

Be business like in your communications. If you annoy someone
sufficiently they have many perfectly legal ways to make your life
difficult.