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November 5, 2003
North PV residents oppose landfill
By MARK WAITE
But Nye County environmental consultant Mary Ellen Giampaoli and hydrologist Tom Buqo made the bowl-shaped plateau north of Shadow Mountain seem as solid a site for a future landfill as the quartzite it sits on. "There's no site in Nye County nobody's going to have opposition to," Buqo told about 20 people in attendance. Harley Kulkin, who lives north of Roadrunner Road, pledged to fight the proposed site, which lies along a road currently passable only by four-wheel drive up a wash a mile west of Highway 160. Kulkin said Nye County hasn't fulfilled any promises to residents in his area. "The only thing we're good for is paying taxes," Kulkin said. "Now the only thing we're good for is dumping garbage." In predicting an upcoming fight, Kulkin said, "The county's going to waste a lot of money trying to put it up there." The landfill site is in a bowl that's a natural amphitheater that magnifies sound, Kulkin said. However, when it came to a checklist of criteria that must be met, the South Johnnie site is a suitable location, consultants said. "More than 100 feet from the water table? Check. More than 1,000 feet from a source of surface water? Check. Located away from any airports, wetlands, flood plains and seismic zones? Check," Buqo said. Buqo, who quickly noted he was the only official hydrologist in the room, said the only concern for wetlands in the area is the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. That comment led resident Sally Devlin to inquire if the dump wouldn't impact the national refuge; Buqo said the landfill would be more than five miles away from it. "There's no evidence of recent faults," Buqo said. The only earthquake faults in the area are millions of years old, he said. While some members of the audience disagreed, Buqo said the groundwater flows come down the Spring Mountains to Pahrump Valley, not from the north as Kulkin claimed. The geology of the area to the north is quartzite, to the south a mixture of quartzite and carbonate rocks, which would be well suited for a landfill, Buqo said. The landfill is being planned to last 75 years to eliminate the cost of permitting and constructing future landfills, Giampaoli said. Resident Jim Petell said there are hundreds of small lots in the nearby Calvada North subdivision waiting to be developed. But Buqo countered, "Where are you going to put that (landfill) site that's not going to be developed in 75 years?" The present landfill site on Mesquite Avenue was once in a largely undeveloped area, but now residents have built close to it, Buqo said. "Now we have a landfill sitting deliberately upstream from people's water wells," he added. When it comes to groundwater flows at the proposed South Johnnie l site, Buqo said, "There's no down gradient receptors. Nobody lives down gradient from this site." Grant Hudlow, however, felt the Mesquite Avenue landfill site was suitable for future development, with power available. It wouldn't be wise to have a closed landfill in the middle of a city in the future, he said. But Giampaoli said the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection wouldn't permit expansion of the Mesquite Avenue landfill except into two new cells and a vertical expansion. That expansion will buy the county another five years of landfill life, possibly longer with a recycling program, she said. Nye County also made a settlement agreement with the Nevada Division of Environment Protection in exchange for expansion of the current landfill, Giampaoli said. "It obligates the county to move forward as quickly as possible to get a new landfill sited and operated," she said. Hudlow also questioned whether the South Johnnie site north of Shadow Mountain could be a designated a recreational area. Ken Grubb, a member of the Pahrump Public Lands Advisory Board who lives near Kulkin, said another site should be available, citing 9,000 acres on the bureau's list for disposal in the Pahrump Valley area. Hudlow suggested requesting congressional legislation to get land from the BLM. Five other landfill sites were originally studied by the county, Giampaoli said: at Lathrop Wells near Gate 510, the entrance to the Yucca Mountain site; just over the pass to Amargosa Valley on West Bell Vista Road where an informal shooting range is now located; across U.S. Highway 95 from the Mercury exit, a site where nuclear protesters call the "Peace Camp"; north of the Johnnie town site and south of the Johnnie town site. Nye County Commissioners in July 2002 agreed to pursue the Lathrop Wells site because it was the only one already on the BLM list for land disposal, Giampaoli said. Nye County Public Works Director Samson Yao said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidelines call for building a transfer station if trash has to be hauled more than 15 miles. The new site would be 14 miles north of Highway 372, close enough to avoid building one. |
