New locks keep BLM from inspecting Sunrise landfill

Monday, Sept. 28, 1998 | 1:59 a.m.

Switched locks are keeping the Bureau of Land Management from inspecting the closed Sunrise Mountain landfill.

The BLM owns the 720-acre site but the former landfill is leased to Clark County and managed by Silver State Disposal Service, which notified the federal agency Friday that it was switching locks to keep unauthorized people out until damaged caused by September floods is repaired.

Although the BLM maintains it has a right to inspect the property, which was the site Thursday of a Sierra Club press conference, the federal agency has not yet determined how it will respond to the locked gates. BLM officials have, however, met with their law enforcement staff to discuss the situation.

"It's up to the law enforcement officers," said Michael Moran, the BLM staffer who oversees Sunrise landfill issues.

The Sierra Club called the press conference to demonstrate the amount of garbage that washed into the Las Vegas Wash after heavy rains on Sept. 11. Earlier this year, BLM inspections of the landfill site raised questions about the levels of methane gas leaking from the buried garbage, the quality of the underlying water table, and erosion of the cap that is supposed to safely contain the garbage.

The landfill opened in 1962 and stopped accepting garbage in 1993. Silver State is now owned by Republic Industries. All federal, state and local agencies signed an agreement that the landfill was closed properly in 1995, but whether the site was properly capped is in dispute.

Silver State attorney Robert Groesbeck faxed a letter about the padlocks on Friday to BLM District Manger Michael Dwyer. The letter stated that access to the site will be restricted until Silver State crews repair the flood damage.

Groesbeck said "a number of unauthorized vehicles" had been observed on the site as work to repair the damaged cap was under way.