The Bayfield landfill on County Road 223 west of town was shut down in 1994 and replaced with the current transfer station. But the toxic legacy of the old days is still present. State health officials are pushing the county to get it fixed.
They met with county officials on Dec. 10. At issue is a compound called vinyl chloride that continues to be detected beyond the bounds of the 32-acre landfill property. Also at issue is a 29-page consent order proposed by the state.
"We've been working with (state officials) for some time now on the content of a consent order," county attorney Sheryl Rogers said. Draft consent orders have been going back and forth since 2011.
Bob Peterson from the state's solid waste permitting unit in Grand Junction said the state has issued three "compliance advisories" to the county between 2005 and 2010. "Those aren't official enforcement actions," he said. "In those we requested actions. A lot of those have or are being done. The county has been engaged. But the extent of contamination in groundwater is still not defined."
He continued, "I think we're pretty much on the same page for what needs to be done in the future." But he noted the due date at the end of this month for a report on effectiveness of actions taken so far. Decisions have to be made on whether remediation is working, but that can't happen without knowing the extent of contamination, he said.
Participants looked at charts and diagrams prepared by the county. Just to the north and downhill from the current transfer station is an area where buried refuse is generating gas. A network of vents have been installed by the county to vent the gas, because it's considered the transmission medium getting the vinyl chloride into the groundwater. Farther down hill is an area where buried refuse is saturated with water because of problems with the landfill cap that's supposed to keep water out.
The flow of groundwater with vinyl chloride above state standards is toward CR 223 and the east half of the Lions Club gun range. Some of the water being monitored is in bedrock in the Animas shale formation, and some is shallow alluvial water.
Peterson said there are 27 domestic water wells within a mile of the landfill. County Commissioner Julie Westendorff countered that they are outside the defined contamination plume. A well on the property just east of the gun range has shown vinyl chloride, but not above state standards, county environmental official Leslie Jacoby said.
According to the history recounted in the draft consent order, the landfill had operated since the 1950s and was purchased by the county in 1970. Because of its age, the landfill wasn't constructed with a liner or a leacheate collection system. An estimated 100,000 cubic yards of municipal trash was deposited in 15 of the 32 acres over 20-plus years.
Four groundwater monitoring wells were installed in 1986 and have been monitored since, currently semi-annually, the draft order says. Vinyl chloride above state standards was found in two of them in 2004 and 2005. The other two monitoring wells and two nearby domestic wells did not have vinyl chloride above state standards.
The state issued a "compliance advisory" to the county in 2005, requesting the county to submit, among other things, a groundwater assessment plan to determine the full horizontal and vertical extent of groundwater contamination. The county complied with a plan that included sampling 13 domestic wells near the landfill.
County follow-up included three more groundwater monitoring wells in 2006 plus wells to monitor gas generated by the buried refuse and to monitor leacheate. An eighth groundwater monitoring well was added.
Data from 2007 showed vinyl chloride above state standards in one well and much above standards in the well just north of CR 223 near the east shooting bench at the gun range. Because of that, another compliance advisory was issued in 2008. The state wanted a new groundwater assessment plan, because the new monitoring wells still didn't seem to have determined the full extent of contamination.
County monitoring and mitigations continued into 2010, but the same two monitoring wells continued to show vinyl chloride above state standards. The state directed the county to install at least two plume definition wells in the ongoing effort to determine the direction and extent of groundwater contamination. The county did three. Two of them showed vinyl chloride above state standards.
The state issued yet another compliance advisory in December 2010. Determining the extent of contamination was still an issue, along with determining the source of the contamination. In early 2011, a county consultant issued an opinion that landfill gas was the means of spreading the groundwater contamination.
The county proposed a new monitoring well (the one with the highest vinyl chloride levels) close to the old one in 2011. The Bayfield Lions Club, which owns and operates the gun range across CR 223 from the landfill, sent a letter in March 2011 denying access to the Lions property for another well. The club sent a follow-up letter in December 2014 reiterating that position.
In 2012 the county retro-fitted 15 landfill wells as passive gas vents. Remediation efforts and talks between county and state officials continued in 2013 and 2014. Vinyl chloride continued to exceed state standards in one monitoring well and two plume definition wells. The county proposed five new passive landfill gas extraction wells.
As of fall 2015, vinyl chloride was listed above standards in two groundwater monitoring wells and three plume definition wells.
That led to the consent order discussed on Dec. 10. It requires another work plan to determine the vertical and horizontal extent of vinyl chloride impacts. It also calls for abandonment of at least three monitor wells, replacement of two plume definition wells, and the addition of at least one new plume definition well. There's a 12-month deadline for that from the date a consent order is signed. The order also refers to a phase-two work plan. It lists closure of the facility as a possible solution.
It says any violation of the consent order could result in a penalty of $10,000 per day for each day of violation. If the county's action plan requires access on land not owned or controlled by the county, it says the county "shall use reasonable efforts" to get access for the county work and for state oversight.
Westendorff objected, "My understanding is part of the consent order would require doing things on property we don't have access to."
Peterson said monitor wells can be drilled in the county road right-of-way instead. Jacoby cited on-going use of the gun range and said a monitor well was not drilled along the east fence line because of safety concerns. Without access on the gun range, she said the extent of the contamination plume might never be determined.
Peterson called the east half of the gun range the toe of the plume. "Can we determine if the remediation plan is working without these definitions? I don't see how. We have 27 domestic wells not very far away in this formation."
County attorney Rogers said, "The county has questioned how many wells we have to drill and the cost of it. There aren't any water users downgrade of it."
Peterson countered, "There's one down-dip from" monitoring well 5. "It could be heading for that well as we speak."
"Or it might not," County Commissioner Brad Blake said. "People don't want you on their property because it could affect the value of their property. Most people don't drink the water. All this property needs is for you to indicate there's a problem, and the value of their property goes from $200,000 to $50,000."
Rogers commented, "It does little good for us to put in a well that an employee can't safely monitor. ... We aren't going to jeopardize our employees."
County Manager Joe Kirby said of the draft consent order, "My sense is the county has done its due diligence over the years. It's getting to look like Swiss cheese because there are so many monitoring wells. ... You may have lost patience, but we've been working diligently on this."
Peterson agreed but said, "But I don't know how we're going to move forward. This month is when we're supposed to decide if the wells are doing the job. The next step is groundwater remediation. How can we do that if the plume isn't defined?" Sticking to the county road right-of-way might not be enough, he advised.
Jennifer Robbins from the State Attorney General's Office said, "We aren't going to just sit here and wait forever. We'd rather work with you than issue an order."
Westendorff wanted to know what will qualify as fixed.
Robbins said, "It's hard to say something is fixed. There can be a downward trend but never meet the standard. Do you want to monitor for 100 years or switch to another strategy?" She said the goal is to meet the standard.
Rogers wanted to know what technical and financial issues the county could face if the current processes aren't successful. "You are asking us to sign an order. One option is groundwater treatment. ... We recently had demonstrated to us the cost of a water treatment unit," meaning the treatment unit installed to treat water coming out of the Gold King mine above Silverton.
Jacoby said the operating cost there is $1 million a year.
That would be on top of $500,000 to $1 million for the unit itself, said Tim Shangraw from county consulting firm Environmental Management Support Inc.
Kerby, Rogers and Westendorff challenged the need for a consent order. "Given statutes of limitations, we would argue we shouldn't be subject to a consent order," Rogers said.
Ed Smith from the state Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) compliance unit countered, "When there are continued violations of the groundwater standard, those are new violations, so there's no statute of limitations."
Rogers persisted. "It's the blank-check issue," she said.
Westendorff added, "I can just envision us doing the work in the right-of-way and still not being able to achieve what is required in the consent order."
Kerby also cited the financial issue with the county's 50 percent drop in property tax revenue since 2010. It went from $30 million in 2010 to $15 million in 2014, he said. "We've worked through that, but we see similar things on the horizon in 2017 and possibly beyond that," he said.
County Public Works Director Jim Davis estimated the county has spent "in excess of $600,000" so far. "We've invested a lot, done a lot, and we believe we're making progress," he said.
