Beginning on Friday July 16, the new operating hours for self haul customers at County Solid Waste Facilities on San Juan and Orcas Island will be 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

“This is a result of our need to change the type of our operation on San Juan Island and send commercial loads and packer trucks to Orcas,” said San Juan Public Works Director Jon Shannon. “But a side-effect is that it should prove more convenient for self-haulers.”

On July 5 the San Juan Island operation will become a “drop box” similar to the solid waste operation on Lopez Island. Only customers who can toss their trash over a low barrier directly into a container will be able to use the facility.

Trucks from the Town of Friday Harbor, franchise hauler San Juan Sanitation and other large commercial trucks will ferry to the County transfer station on Orcas Island. The solid waste utility is making the schedule change so utility staff can be shifted to Orcas to handle the additional weekday traffic.

The operational changes result from the state Department of Ecology’s announcement that it will not renew the County’s variance to operate the San Juan Island facility as a transfer station, which can handle large compacted loads and other trucks which must unload onto a tipping floor.