Meyers Landfill remains issue for county
By Kathryn Reed
Until the U.S. Forest Service signs off on the report created by El Dorado County regarding the Meyers Landfill, that plot of land on the South Shore is likely to remain an agenda item for the Board of Supervisors.
Three issues related to the now defunct landfill off Pioneer Trail were before the supervisors on March 25.
Meyers Landfill has been in litigation for decades. Photo/USFS file
One had to do with balancing change orders from work done on the site last summer. Work included reseeding the vegetative cap, irrigation and repairing damage to the conveyance features.
The other two items were to extend the contract for two firms doing work on the site through the end of the year. This is in anticipation the Forest Service will respond by this summer to the report the county submitted in November. This will allow the county to contract for any work the feds request.
“There is no time line stipulation for (the Forest Service) to give us an answer,” Greg Stanton, deputy director of environmental management for the county, told Lake Tahoe News.
A lawsuit involving the landfill is still in federal court. The two government bodies are racking up legal bills as they dispute who should pay what.
In early 2013, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with El Dorado County in regards to whether it should pay for unexpected costs. The bill is about $13 million – twice what was expected. No matter who pays, it’s taxpayer money.
There will always to be some maintenance expenses at the site, which the county will pay, Stanton said.
“Basically, mediation discussions between the Forest Service and El Dorado County are on-going. The substance and content of those discussions cannot be disclosed due to on-going litigation and the mediation agreement between the Forest Service and county,” Lisa Herron, spokeswoman for the USFS, told Lake Tahoe News.
The Meyers Landfill off Pioneer Trail on the edge of South Lake Tahoe was used from 1947-71. Twenty years later the feds sued a slew of entities for cleanup costs. Vinyl chloride, a carcinogen produced when household waste breaks down, was the main contaminant under the sealed plot, although methane and other gases posed problems.
Well, since the Meyers landfill is in Meyers, is suspect nothing will happen.
Woah, hold on here’s Rock, you may be on to something, a win win all the way around … Instead of putting the Meyers catalyst in Meyers, that seems to be pissing everyone off, since the powers that be want environmental work done, put it out on top of the dump.
Who cares if you have 60 foot buildings out there?
Make the density of hotels insane.
Put your 500 car solar powered parking lot that will never work out there.
WHO WOULD CARE.
The only caveat, make the commercial enterprise as a first step to dig up the dump and cart it away. Give them the land for free! Oh heck rent it to them for 30 years for $1 a year. I can even see TRPA getting behind this as it would be a HUGE environmental clean up. Save the tax payers MILLIONS.
What’s the worst that could happen, we end up with a hole? Sounds better than what we are stuck with now.
NO wait, it will never work with the government, makes too much sense.
Lou. I has only been there for 70 years, whats another 70 right? It goes good with Tveten Town and Little Norway etc.
Federal Superfund site(oh that pesky EPA). Great place for a shooting range(make the targets in the shape of your liver). Or a family park…
Rock, don’t knock old school, my truck still has a Bill Winks license plate frame. LOL