State officials call landfill’s monitoring plan ‘unacceptable’

Friday, Oct. 16, 1998 | 11:10 a.m.

State environmental officials are outraged over a plan to detect pollutants that might seep from the controversial Sunrise Mountain landfill into Southern Nevada's drinking water supply.

The plan, which calls for monitoring groundwater near the landfill, is "completely unacceptable," said a spokesman for the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection.

Republic-Silver State Disposal Services Inc. submitted a two-page letter to the state environmental protection division on Thursday that says samples will be collected from three existing wells on a periodic basis. The wells are between one and two miles from the landfill located at the end of Vegas Drive on Sunrise Mountain.

The state contends that the plan would not adequately test the groundwater and could allow pollutants such as bacteria and solvents to get into Las Vegas' drinking water.

"It's an outrage," said David Emme, the solid waste project manager for the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, after reading the letter.

The state had expected a comprehensive monitoring plan to test for possible groundwater contamination that could reach the Las Vegas Wash less than five miles southeast of the landfill, Emme said.

The wash is located six miles upstream from the intake for Southern Nevada's drinking water from Lake Mead.

"We will have to take some action," Emme said. "It's a completely unacceptable proposal, and we will decide how to deal with it."

Whether the state will force the company to drill extra test wells will be decided soon, Emme said.

Representatives of Silver State could not be reached for comment. The report to the state said that groundwater and surface water sampling has been done since the landfill closed "on a voluntary and cooperative basis."

Silver State had agreed to submit a groundwater monitoring plan by Thursday.

The Sunrise landfill raised federal and state officials' concerns in 1996 after the Bureau of Land Management, which owns the 720-acre site, discovered cracks in the cap containing explosive levels of methane and hydrogen sulfide gases.

The Clark County Health District has installed an air monitor at the site but has not detected hazardous levels of the gas.

After residents living about a mile from the unlined landfill complained about the gases, officials turned their attention to possible groundwater contamination.

A study revealed that a major earthquake fault slices through the center of the landfill and the mountain is riddled with cracks. As a result springs and seeps of water rise within Sunrise Mountain after heavy rains.

The state environmental protection division and the federal Environmental Protection Agency have told Silver State that the former landfill must be capped properly to prevent cracks and floodwaters from invading the site and that extensive groundwater monitoring is necessary.

Silver State's consultant CH2M Hill said that no organic compounds from the landfill had been discovered from water samples taken after a severe thunderstorm on Sept. 11 ripped through the landfill and dumped debris into the wash.

"There is no evidence that a release has migrated," the CH2M report said.

However, no tests for bacteria or radioactive elements in the groundwater were conducted.