Groups to test for pollution by landfill

Environmentalists say landfill dirtying creek

6/21/01

By SCOTT HADLY 
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Convinced that the Tajiguas Landfill is contaminating water that drains to the ocean, several local environmental groups staged a protest in downtown Santa Barbara on Wednesday to announce a new pollution testing plan.

Although county officials say there's no evidence that the landfill contributes to water pollution, the group plans to hire the same hydro-geological consultants who worked with Erin Brockovich to see if there is a link between the landfill and water pollution.

Heal the Ocean, the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and the Gaviota Coast Conservancy plan to study the county's own data as well as their own water samples to pinpoint the source of bacterial contamination at Arroyo Quemada Beach, just up the coast from Refugio State Beach.

The environmental groups will pay the Van Nuys consulting company GeoSolv $6,184 to sort through the data and recommend how to best determine if the landfill is contaminating the ocean.

The firm worked with Ms. Brockovich on a case against Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

Arroyo Quemada Beach was recently ranked the most polluted in Southern California by the Santa Monica-based Heal the Bay.

Although county officials are paying for a DNA study of water samples taken from Arroyo Quemada creek and lagoon, Hillary Hauser, executive director of Heal the Ocean, says the county's program isn't extensive enough.

County officials suspect that fecal contamination in the creek and ocean is likely from sea birds that roost on the beach, faulty septic systems for the roughly two dozen homes in the small beach community there, or from wild and domestic animals in the creek watershed.

But Ms. Hauser said Wednesday that the county is ignoring the dump, which is, according to her, potentially the biggest source of pollution.

"We've got this big elephant out there and nobody is going around to sample the tail end of it," she said.

Ms. Hauser and fellow members of Heal the Ocean took it upon themselves to test water in and around the landfill recently, documenting their self-described "eco-raid" in a video that has aired on community access television.

The team had to trespass on the landfill to take the samples.

Each of the three areas they sampled exceeded state standards, according to Ms. Hauser.

But county officials question the scientific validity of the sampling.

Although Arroyo Quemada Creek is not in the same watershed as the landfill, Ms. Hauser believes it is possible that contamination from the dump is entering the groundwater, and moving toward the creek and ocean.

The contamination may also be entering Canada de la Pila, a seasonal creek below the landfill that empties into the ocean about a quarter mile west of Arroyo Quemada, she said.

As she spoke, supporters held up signs that read "Dump the Dump," "Stink or Swim" and "Tajiguas pollutes the Ocean Air and Land."

But ocean water samples at the mouth of Canada de la Pila rarely exceed state bacteria standards, said Mark Schleich, deputy director of the county's Solid Waste and Utilities Division.

And although county officials concede that there is bacteria pollution in that creek, they say the pollution levels are actually much lower than other creeks along the South Coast. Arroyo Quemada, Arroyo Burro and Mission creeks all have much higher levels of total coliform, fecal coliform and enterococcus, Mr. Schleich said.

But county officials said they welcomed another independent consultant to take a look at the landfill operation.

"I think it's great," said Phil Demery, director of Public Works.

For four years the county has been testing surface water in creeks around the landfill and for more than 10 years they have been sampling groundwater -- not for bacterial contamination but for volatile organic compounds -- and they have yet to find any evidence that the landfill is contributing to water pollution, Mr. Demery said.

Many of these questions may be answered in a long delayed environmental impact report on the proposed expansion of the landfill.

The county Board of Supervisors recommended that Tajiguas Landfill be closed in the next 15 years, while a new dump site is found in the county.

But within five years the landfill at Tajiguas will reach capacity and would have to be expanded into a canyon above the dump.

The environmental groups want to stop that proposal.