Cost of cleaning landfill site rising

Tuesday, March 24, 1998 | 10:12 a.m.

The price tag to clean up the closed Sunrise landfill jumped after scientists discovered toxic and cancer-causing chemicals in and around the site.

The Bureau of Land Management released a report Monday by two Colorado consultants that said sample soil gases contained organic and hazardous materials not found in ordinary household wastes.

CCJM Environmental and TEG-Rocky Mountain found benzene, hydrogen sulfide, carbon tetrachloride and several cancer-causing solvents such as perchloroethylene and trichloro ethane in 90 gas samples taken at the 720-acre landfill.

Several possible sources include contaminated soils spread over municipal garbage, causing incomplete soil treatment or contaminated septic sludge deposited on the site.

Mike Moran, a BLM hazardous materials specialist, said there is no immediate health threat. There could be, however, some significant costs in cleaning it up, he said. He warned that people should stay away from the lagoons in and around the site.

Moran said he could not estimate a total cleanup cost or who is responsible for cleaning the area up because the BLM is still investigating the site, but hazardous chemicals will raise the cleanup price tag.

"We don't have all the answers yet," he said.

Two lagoons were built on public lands outside the landfill. One is located in a wilderness study area, about 100 feet from the landfill. Another is northwest of the site. While the landfill was designed for solid waste, evidence in the lagoons show thousands of gallons of liquid that left a black goo.

The Sunrise landfill was operated for 32 years on land leased to Clark County from the BLM. The landfill stopped accepting wastes in October 1993, but Disposal Urban Maintenance Processing Co. did not cover the site with a hard soil cover within a year, missing the federal deadline.

A BLM consultant tested the landfill last year to see if it had been closed properly. The consultant discovered dangerous levels of methane gas escaping through cracks in the soil cover.

Moran said the discovery of toxic chemicals adds to the methane gas problem.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., called on the federal Environmental Protection Agency to work with local health and environmental officials to deal with the landfill's problems.

An EPA official responsible for landfills could not be reached for comment.

Reid said talk of building a golf course on top of the unlined landfill must be backed by assurances to Clark County residents that it will be safe. So far, those assurances are not there, he said.