Ensign pushes former dump as putting green

Thursday, March 26, 1998 | 10:23 a.m.

Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., has arranged a meeting between a golf course developer interested in turning the closed Sunrise Mountain landfill into a putting green and the federal Bureau of Land Management which is investigating the site.

Ensign brought BLM officials and Leahi Hills Development Inc. representatives together in his Las Vegas office on March 13 to discuss plans for the developer to cap the unlined landfill and recover methane gas from its pits.

"The congressman called it a 'win-win-win' situation," said Ensign's press secretary Jack Finn.

Leahi Hills President Jimmie Gomes also has approached Clark County, which leased the 720-acre site from the BLM to operate the landfill, about the proposed golf course on an informal basis.

But two BLM consultants have discovered toxic chemicals and cancer-causing materials in 90 holes punched in and around the landfill. Identification of possible contaminants is not complete, said Michael Dwyer, BLM Las Vegas District director.

Three black lagoons that once contained liquids also have been discovered, but no analysis has been done on the tarry substance inside of them.

"Before we even consider something like this, we have to know what is there," Dwyer said Wednesday of the ongoing investigation at the unlined landfill.

If Clark County officials agree to include the golf course as part of the closure plan, that will be fine, Dwyer said, but it's up to the county. And county officials did not attend Ensign's meeting.

State, county Health District and county Public Works officials are expected to meet next week after the regulators have a chance to review the latest report and an earlier one of methane gas found at low explosive levels in pits at the closed landfill.

"We're not out there to prove it's a bad site," said Michael Moran, the BLM's man in charge of solid waste. "We're trying to find out what's out there."

Next, the BLM plans to study groundwater at the site.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to Public Works Director Marty Manning and Silver State Disposal Service President Stephen Kalish on March 11 outlining stricter standards the Sunrise landfill must meet because it missed a federal deadline for capping the site by Oct. 9, 1994. Whoever takes over responsibility for the area will have to conduct groundwater monitoring and collect methane gas for at least 30 years.