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.