Meyers Landfill and LTUSD

4/09 unedited tahoe mt. news

By Kathryn Reed

Taxpayers’ dollars are being shifted around in the settlement between the U.S. Forest Service and Lake Tahoe Unified School District over the old Meyers Landfill.
In 2001, the district was named in the multi-jurisdictional lawsuit pertaining to the former garbage dump off Pioneer Trail. Because waste from schools was put there the district became one of the parties in the suit.
El Dorado County is the main defendant in the suit because it ran the dump until it closed 38 years ago. Douglas County and South Lake Tahoe are also part of the litigation.
The school district has spent about $130,000 on legal fees, which comes from the budgeted legal fees account. The settlement mandates the district pay the Forest Service $100,000. Half of that will come from the district’s insurance company, half from the general fund. The district allocated $50,000 in the 2007-08 budget for this purpose.
“It’s much like the state budget – there are no winners for us or the community; however, we are very relieved to have this issue behind us,” said Deb Yates, the district’s chief financial officer.
Late last year the school board approved the settlement.
“The attorneys and the court have been ‘fine tuning’ the final decree since July 2007,” Yates said.
Department of Justice officials said, “The parties are engaged in confidential settlement discussions” and that no settlements have yet been filed with the court. Officials would not confirm that a settlement had been reached with the school district.
As for the rest of the case, mediation is ongoing between the Department of Justice, which represents the USFS, and special counsel for El Dorado County and others.
The Meyers Landfill 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, is the main contaminant under the sealed 26-acre plot, although methane and other gases pose problems. The Environmental Protection Agency has deemed it a Superfund site.
“We have an approved design for the landfill cap and will proceed with construction this summer if we can identify funding, regardless of whether or not the legal issues are settled,” said Cheva Heck, USFS spokeswoman.