State orders trash firm to revamp flood channel

Friday, Oct. 2, 1998 | 11:28 a.m.

The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection has ordered Republic-Silver State Disposal Services Inc. to redesign its flood control channel after a recent storm dumped waste from a controversial landfill into Las Vegas Wash.

David Emme, director of solid waste for NDEP, said he visited the Sunrise Mountain unlined landfill Tuesday.

"We want to see that the stormwater system is re-evaluated," Emme said Thursday from his Carson City office.

Gauges at the site captured more than 2 inches of rain in less than an hour from the Sept. 11 storm, according to Silver State attorney Robert Groesbeck.

A surge of water north and uphill of the drainage ditch on the east side of the landfill plugged the entrance to the flood channel. Then the mud plug tore loose and flood waters surged more than 4 miles to the Las Vegas Wash, sending household wastes, pill bottles, intravenous tubing, 55-gallon drums and debris into the water. The wash is six miles upstream of Southern Nevada's major drinking water intake pipes.

The state recognizes that the severe thunderstorm overwhelmed the channel.

"But there were problems with the drainage system earlier right after the dump closed," Emme said.

Silver State stopped accepting wastes in 1993 but did not put a required impermeable cap in place until 1995.

The state and the federal Environmental Protection Agency began examining the closed, unlined landfill after consultants to the Bureau of Land Management, owner of the 720-acre site, discovered cracks in the cap and methane gas escaping.

"We're going to make sure a competent engineer redesigns the drainage system," Emme said.

While the landfill's closure plan, which was approved by all parties involved, requires air and ground water monitoring, there is no ground water monitoring system in place.

Emme said the state set an Oct. 15 deadline for Silver State to submit a plan on how to monitor the landfill's groundwater. The site is a complex area riddled with earthquake faults.

After last month's storm, the BLM asked the Desert Research Institute, the research arm of the University of Nevada System, to sample the water running from a crack in Sunrise Mountain. The BLM is waiting for those test results.