Locals who use the Enumclaw Transfer Station to dispose of trash or yard waste might see an uptick in traffic starting next month.

King County Solid Waste announced April 18 that longer vehicles — 25-plus feet long, which are mostly residential cars with trailers attached — will no longer be able to access the Algona, Houghton, and Renton transfer stations starting May 2, as safety improvements are being made to those stations.

“Large vehicles do not have enough room to safely maneuver inside these older, smaller stations, and they increase the risk of accidents and injuries to workers and customers,” the county wrote in a press release. “The Solid Waste Division is activating the safety measures before peak customer activity in late spring and summer.”

30-foot vehicles were already prohibited from accessing the Algona, Houghton, and Renton stations, and this new 25-foot length restriction is permanent; commercial haulers are exempt from these new restrictions.

Algona station customers are recommended to the Bow Lake station, located in Tukwila, or the Enumclaw station.

According to Solid Waste’s 2021 annual report, the Algona station is the second-busiest facility, with more than 152,000 tons being disposed there that year, or about 18 percent of all solid waste in King County. In 2018, it served nearly 141,000 customers.

The Bow Lake transfer station, located 13 miles north, is expected to get the brunt of Algona’s traffic.

“Most of [the additional traffic] is going to go to Bow Lake,” said King County Solid Waste Operations Manager Mark Montiero, adding that only between 5 to 7 percent of vehicles that utilized Algona were 25 feet long or longer. “Very little impact to Enumclaw, from what we have determined.”

That said, the Bow Lake station is King County’s busiest station, serving nearly 200,000 customers in 2018 and handling more than 258,000 tons of solid waste in 2021.

Because of that, there can be wait times at Bow Lake, Montiero said, though the worst are mostly limited to the weekends, when more residential customers utilize the transfer station. That may be when the Enumclaw station, located about 24 miles to the east (further than the Bow Lake station, but less traffic during rush hours), could see more customers.

The Enumclaw station is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but is only available to Enumclaw and other King County residents (you must show I.D. to access the facility). In 2018, it served roughly 54,500 customers and received more than 22,000 tons of waste and 2,200 tons of recyclable materials.

To see what sort of wait time you could experience at the Bow Lake or Enumclaw stations, head online to kingcounty.gov/depts/dnrp/solid-waste/facilities/transfer/check-the-line.aspx (there is no live feed of the line in Enumclaw).