The decision to build to new and improved solid-waste transfer station at Sutton Road, the site of the existing and environmentally-flawed facility, may have been a relief for many on San Juan Island.

But for George Post of Orcas, it proved to be the final straw.

“I saw this as a chance to see if we could make a choice where we’re actually investing in our future,” Post said. “I don’t think the county profited by this at all.”

By selecting Sutton Road as its top choice, the County Council, he said, got it wrong.

As a result, Post last week called it quits after a 20-year tenure on the Solid Waste Advisory Committee and cited the selection of Sutton Road as the reason for his departure. He announced his resignation at the advisory panel’s April 30 meeting in Friday Harbor.

“This was a definitive moment for me,” he said. “It’s another lost opportunity.”

With Post as chairman, SWAC undertook a two-year site selection process and ended up choosing Beaverton Valley Road, a 27-acre county-owned parcel, as its top choice, and Sutton Road as its third. The council turned that SWAC recommendation on its head.

According to Post, who operates The Exchange, a recycling center located at the transfer station on Orcas, furthering the policies of the county solid-waste management plan, in which waste reduction is the overarching goal, depends largely on the site of the transfer station on San Juan Island, which generates roughly 50 percent of trash collected year-in and year-out by the county.

At Sutton Road, he said there’s limits on the improvements that can be made and that Beaverton Valley Road was, in large part because of its size and flat terrain, the clear choice for the future. He believes the council based its decision on priorities other than waste reduction.

“It was never part of their discussion,” Post said. “I just feel that they made a mistake.”