Editorial: Conflict emerges on landfill

Sunday, Oct. 21, 2007 | 12:55 p.m.

For years Clark County has retained a California attorney for advice on an old landfill issue involving the county, the Environmental Protection Agency and Republic Services.

The county's interest is in seeing that a deal with Republic Services - the local garbage collection company - remains intact so that taxpayers do not become liable for the millions of dollars it is costing to clean up and seal the former landfill near Sunrise Mountain.

How much that interest is actually being represented, however, is now a fair question. Las Vegas Sun reporter Tony Cook has revealed that the California attorney, Scott W. Gordon, also works for Republic Services.

Gordon was hired by the county in 1999. The next year, Republic Services hired him to work on issues involving its California operations.

Gordon's dual roles came as a surprise to County Manager Virginia Valentine as well as county commissioners. County spokesman Erik Pappa, though, said the arrangement had been disclosed at the time to managers no longer working for the county.

The issue began with a violent rainstorm in 1998. The landfill, which Republic Services used until the site was closed and haphazardly sealed in 1993, broke open and spilled tons of toxic garbage into the Las Vegas Wash.

Concerned about the Las Vegas Valley's drinking water, the EPA stepped in. Clark County, which leases most of the dump's acreage from the Bureau of Land Management, and Republic Services were ordered to clean up and reseal the landfill.

In a sweetheart deal quickly approved, the garbage company agreed to fund the cleanup if Clark County would give it a 15-year extension on its contract to collect residential and commercial trash.

The anticipated cost of repairing the landfill was $36 million, a fraction of what the contract extension was worth. It was also anticipated that the repairs would take only about a year.

Complications set in when the EPA rejected Republic Services' plan for the cleanup. The projected cost has since doubled and negotiations drag on - thus the county's continued use of Gordon's services. He has been awarded contracts worth $368,000, on which he has been paid about $150,000.

Clark County managers say there is no conflict. Gordon's work in California is unrelated to his work representing the county before the EPA, they say. County commissioners have mixed views.

In our view, the interests of Republic Services and Clark County widely diverge on the landfill issue. For Gordon to hold contracts with both is a clear conflict. The county should immediately move to sever its contract with him.