Rural county seeks alternatives to landfill

Friday, Nov. 3, 2006 | 7:21 a.m.

WASHINGTON - Traveling on his campaign bus in Northern Nevada earlier this year, Rep. Jim Gibbons pointed to a silver mine and lamented a lost opportunity.

The Coeur Rochester mine outside of Lovelock is to shut down next year, putting 250 employees out of work. But if legislation Gibbons proposed in Congress had passed last year, the mine would have had new life - as a landfill for garbage from California and a source of rock and gravel for construction.

That might not be as exciting as silver mining, but it would have provided economic development for Pershing County, where the poverty rate is higher than elsewhere in the state.

Under Gibbons' proposal, the government would have sold the site, including 7,000 acres of federal land, to the company at $500 an acre. Coeur Rochester could then have redeveloped the land and begun operating it as a landfill.

But the legislation became tied up in Gibbons' broader mining bill, which would have relaxed rules for selling government land. That bill died after an alliance of environmentalists, outdoorsmen and mining advocates from his own party lined up against it last year.

Today, Gibbons' plan for the Coeur Rochester mine serves as an indication of the Republican candidate for governor's economic and environmental priorities.

Environmentalists were stunned that Gibbons would suggest a dump as a form of economic development, particularly when communities in California and elsewhere are trying to reduce reliance on landfills that release toxic emissions and threaten to pollute ground water.

"Is this the best Congressman Gibbons can do - get a landfill built out here?" said Scot Rutledge, executive director of the Nevada Conservation League of Voters, an environmental group supporting Gibbons' opponent, Democrat Dina Titus.

Nevadans also flinch at the idea of being anyone's dumping ground, as the battle over the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository has shown. As one bumper sticker says: "Nevada Is Not a Wasteland."

But those sentiments don't mean Gibbons is out of touch. His congressional district encompasses most of rural Nevada, which means his constituents know that good-paying mining jobs are a boom-and-bust proposition.

To many rural Nevadans, a trash dump is better than unemployment. As Gibbons argued on the House floor, any lawmaker who votes against his legislation is "against rural America."

Pershing County, population 6,300, fears the worst when the mine closes. The mine and a prison are among the county's largest employers.

Darin Bloyed, chairman of the Pershing County Commission, said he appreciated Gibbons watching out for the region's future by introducing legislation to redevelop the site. He "wasn't too crazy about a landfill," but he said he was willing to consider it. He wants assurances that the landfill would not pollute ground water and that garbage trucks won't ruin the roads.

But opponents see many flaws in Gibbons' proposal. Environmentalists and others wanted to know why the sale would have been to Coeur Rochester only, instead of by competitive bid.

Under current law, Coeur Rochester must clean up the site - for an estimated $31 million - and then restore it as wilderness or recreational open space. The public is ensured of input in the decisions and can challenge decisions in court.

If the company buys the land instead, opponents fear that the public's rights would diminish and that the required cleanup and restoration might not occur.

"If that were private land, it takes away the opportunity for the public to participate in those decisions,'' said Bob Abbey, the Bureau of Land Management's former Nevada director, who now is a consultant on land issues in the state.

Even though the Gibbons legislation failed, the company said it continues to explore uses for the site. Coeur Rochester presented ideas for the landfill to local officials earlier this year.

Gibbons, as governor, could influence public policy and persuade state agencies to go along, said Glenn Miller, a board member of the mining watchdog group Great Basin Mine Watch.

Gibbons did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Miller, who has a Titus lawn sign in his front yard, said the desert site isn't a bad location for a landfill . But he opposes the way Gibbons went about it.

"This one was a sweetheart deal between the mining industry and the congressman from Nevada," he said.

But for some Gibbons supporters in rural Nevada, that might not be a bad thing.