West Fork Environmental Protection Association

WFEPA Background

Almost 6 years ago the West Fork EPA formed in opposition to a dump a company wanted to install in the McClinton Anchor Quarry near town. Henry Griffith was elected coordinator. WFEPA's opposition was successful and the company withdrew its application; WFEPA continued as a group to support environmental projects, such as the annual river festival and clean-up. We received our non-profit status last year.

About 2 years ago Washington County Environmental Educator, Sophie Stephenson, came to our WFEPA board meeting and asked if we would like to work to establish a recycle center here. We thought that was a great idea and voted to do so. Some of us toured a really good site operating in Madison County and have used it as a guide for our own project.

Sophie gave a presentation to some of the WF City Council members and Mayor Jeff Baker became an enthusiastic supporter. He asked Henry Griffith to chair a committee to plan, develop and operate the center. That committee consisted of Mayor Baker, Henry Griffith, Sophie Stephenson, Patty Baker, Patrick Burton and Paul Libor.

We sought the assistance of an advisory panel, which includes Thomas Hodges (BMSWD Director), Larry Kerrigan-Winter (Madison County WMD Director), France Hime (WFEPA & Master Gardeners), David McKee (Architect), Susan Cooney (now City Clerk), and Betsy Spetich (ADEQ).

The West Fork Renewable Resource Center opened for operations in July of last year. Individual, family and community groups volunteer to operate the center. The response of the community was overwhelmingly positive. During our first year we processed 80,000 pounds of recyclable material.

Present Status

The site is open 9-12 on Saturday mornings. During the Spring, Summer and Fall we open from 3:30-6:30 to coincide with the Garden Market.

Recycle Center

We accept:

Steel cans
Aluminum cans
Newspaper
Mixed paper
#1 plastic bottles
#2 plastic bottles
Wal-Mart bags
Green, brown & clear glass
Cardboard
Leaves and branches

Unfortunately, the collapse of the world economy has also caused the collapse of prices being paid for recycle materials, which seriously affected our ability to make money for the center and our plans to expand our operation to accept other materials.

We are particularly proud to note two of our successes. After recent storms the city crew and townspeople were able to bring damaged braches and leaves to our site where they will be chipped and available to gardeners for free.

To support our local grade school, we have also collected over 70 large bags of Wal-Mart bags, for which Wal-Mart donates $5.00 per bag.

The center has also received a grant for $14,000.00 to pay for fencing, landscaping, signs and other improvements.

Frances Hime petitioned the Master Gardeners and they have adopted our site as one of their beautification projects. So far we have spent about $6,500.00 of the grant.

We have also applied for another grant to pay for our office/information building, a dry storage facility and infrastructure and maintenance at the site.

Butch and the city crew have helped us on numerous occasions and do great work. The $5,000.00 budget request for the city from Mayor Baker was designed to cover expenses that arise not already covered by one of our grants or the general fund. An example at this time would be the successful branches and leaves clean-up, which the city crew collected along with our townsfolk. The center Recycle Center can pay for some of the chipping, but the $5,000.00 would cover some of the city costs.

Future Plans

We plan very carefully to implement new services in the future, because the process can be so complicated. Can our volunteers deal with it? Where will the material go? Does the material require dry storage? Etc.

Our next special project is to provide a “By the Bag” household waste drop off. Many of our recyclers produce only one or two bags of trash per month, yet have to pay $14.00 for trash pickup. We believe we can charge them a per bag fee that will be far less and will still deliver a modest profit to us.

Another goal is to eventually replace the expensive semi-annual heavy item city clean-up with a year-round drop-off system that will provide some income.

Our Renewable Resource Center will also function as an environmental learning and information center.

- Henry Griffith

The West Fork Environmental Protection Association is a 501(c)3 organization and is not affiliated with the Environmental Protection Agency or any other government agency. This website and all contents are ©2008 West Fork EPA or their respective copyright holders. WFEPA has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, but does not warrant it to be free from error.