Garbage piles up amid the snow

Phil Spindler of Norris, Beggs and Simpson property management clears slush around overflowing Dumpsters on Friday near a Fred Meyer store in Vancouver. Waste haulers ask businesses to pile extra bagged trash to the side of a container. (Steven Lane/The Columbian)

Dumpsters overflow after more than a week without pickup service due to the winter storm.

Here’s a holiday recipe for trouble:

Take a prolonged arctic blast. Layer in two scheduled holiday breaks. Overlay with a blizzard of Christmas wrapping paper, boxes and holiday fruitcake.

Mountains of garbage are piling up fast.

Lingering snow and ice on Friday prompted the fifth day of cancellations of scheduled waste collection throughout Clark County. Scheduling make-up service has been further complicated because of Christmas and New Year’s Day, two of only three holidays when garbage is not collected.

“It’s bad enough to cancel one day for a holiday,” said Rich McConaghy, solid waste manager for the city of Vancouver. “But the past week has been just a nightmare.”

Waste Connections Inc., which contracts with the county and numerous cities to haul trash and recyclables, has focused on serving critical commercial buildings such as hospitals and medical centers. Most of these are located along major arterials that have been plowed regularly during the past week, according to county officials.

A county official said that garbage trucks and their drivers face an entirely different set of obstacles than do, for example, C-Tran buses or fire trucks.

“You don’t see them back in the side streets and alleys where these guys go,” said Bob Patterson, a waste management specialist for Clark County. “We have drivers stepping out of the vehicle at every stop. Imagine trying to do that a jillion times a day — and roll a cart in it, that maybe has access and maybe doesn’t.”

Ian Ray, who lives in the unincorporated Proebstel area, said he hasn’t had his garbage picked up since Dec. 11 — and won’t until next week. He said he understands that some areas are impassable, but the street in front of his house had bare pavement on Friday.

“It’s a hardship I can endure,” he said. “It’s not something to make a federal case out of, but in terms of contracts and expecting service from a contractor, they have some strange ideas. When it’s difficult on side streets, they won’t pick up anything.”

Supervisors for Waste Connections check the roads as early as 2 a.m. and then decide whether drivers can safely serve the bulk of their customers, said Jason Hudson, a district manager for the company.

“The majority of houses are on those side streets,” Hudson said. “The bulk of our work is on neighborhood side streets, and they just weren’t safe to travel.”

Patterson said Waste Connections will meet its contract obligation as long as the waste is collected … eventually.

“They’re going to get the material that hasn’t been picked up yet. That’s the bottom line,” Patterson said. “They’re going to get it as soon as they can.”

Erik Robinson: 360-735-4551 or erik.robinson@columbian.com.