Article taken from the
Santa Barbara News Press
Water board orders further testing at Tajiguas Landfill By MELINDA BURNS 01/02/04 State water quality officials have ordered the county to begin testing for underground water seepage and contamination at six new locations in and around the Tajiguas Landfill on the Gaviota coast. The Dec. 23 order from the state Regional Water Quality Control board is part of the county's permit to expand the dump, beginning in 2008. It brings the total number of groundwater monitoring wells at the landfill to 43. Of that number, 25 wells are tested for contaminants, at a cost of about $500 per well. The six new wells must be installed by next May and tested every three months. If the water tests clean for two consecutive quarters, the county can suspend water quality testing at these locations, state officials said. Mark Schleich, a deputy director of county Public Works, said he expects the new wells to test clean. But he said: "Let's go ahead and look at it. It's better to know than not know."
The county already is using the expansion area on top of the landfill for winter trash, Mr. Schleich said. Plastic liners for the first major phase of expansion beyond the 250-foot-high mountain of trash and into the back of Pila Canyon will not be installed for another five years. During hearings last year for the Tajiguas expansion permit, members of Heal the Ocean, the Gaviota Coast Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Center argued that the dump should be immediately shut down, not expanded. They contended that a "lake of water" in the trash could be contaminating the ocean and the underlying groundwater basin. State officials responded that there was no "lake" in the trash, but they acknowledged that a few feet of garbage at the bottom of the 250-foot-high landfill were likely getting saturated with shallow groundwater during the rainy season. They said that a trench 50 feet deep across the foot of the landfill had been effective in collecting any seepage. The water is pumped out and sprayed on top of the landfill for dust control. In the end, though, the environmentalist groups did persuade the state board to require more groundwater monitoring at Tajiguas and get the answers to unanswered questions. "We think it's significant because there was a perception that once Tajiguas got its permits, everything was going to sail along," said Hillary Hauser, a founder of Heal the Ocean. "That's not the case. They've got to control that place. Our concern is the groundwater -- where it's going and what's in it."
Another point of contention is the lack of ocean testing at Pila Creek, the stream that has been diverted around the landfill. The county largely cleaned up the ocean contamination at the mouth of Arroyo Quemado Creek, about a quarter of a mile to the east, by hiring a falconer to shoo away the seagulls at the dump. But environmentalists want the county to test the ocean for contamination at the mouth of Pila Creek, too. The county performs weekly water quality tests at 20 recreational beaches, including Arroyo Quemado. Officials say they do not test the beach at Pila Creek because it is not used by the public and because it flows only when it rains. |