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In the News

Closed landfill still costly for county

2/19/00

By MARK VAN DE KAMP

NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

The county will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy two homes next to a rural Solvang landfill closed 30 years ago, to end a pair of lawsuits about contaminated ground water and health problems.

But future costs may mount for the county, since 17 other nearby property owners and residents have similar suits pending.

The exact amount of the two recent settlements will not be publicly disclosed for a few weeks because they are being formalized. The properties are assessed at $476,000 combined, but that likely isn't their true market value. Comparable properties are fetching $600,000 to $1 million each, according to the Santa Ynez Valley Multiple Listing Service. One property owner was suing for $2 million plus future medical expenses.

Efforts are continuing to monitor, control and clean up the spread of the ground water pollution. The county has filed long-term cleanup plans with the state Regional Water Quality Control Board, and on Friday crews began digging trenches for eventual installation of a gas collection system to rid the soil of toxic substances.

The tale began more than 50 years ago.

Trash and solvents were dumped into deep pits and trenches at the unlined Ballard Canyon Landfill from 1948 to 1969, then covered with soil. A few years later, the land was subdivided, two homes were constructed, and several water wells were drilled adjacent to the landfill.

High levels of harmful methane and vinyl chloride were detected in 1988 when the county began looking into possible hazards at the landfill. That was duly reported to the state Regional Water Quality Control Board, Deputy County Counsel David McDermott said.

New tests conducted in 1997 found contaminated well water, so families living nearby were informed of the hazard.

During those years, the families had drunk, cooked and bathed with well water pumped from close proximity to the landfill. Since then, the county has supplied them with bottled water and trucked-in water as a precaution, as well as doing more testing.

Neighbors have little to fear as long as they avoid their well water, said Alvin Greenberg, an independent toxicologist hired by the county last year. He called the risk of cancer "negligible."

But skeptical, worried neighbors do not trust county officials. The county refused to respond to their inquiries and withheld information about tests done near their homes, Santa Barbara attorney Richard Kravetz said last year. Kravetz and attorney Albert Cohen of Los Angeles filed lawsuits on behalf of neighbors, alleging the county waited 10 years to tell residents about leaking gases and chemicals.

At this point, the county is in escrow to buy two homes which sit on 18 acres, including some property on top of the landfill, although the homes themselves are not atop the old dump.

Charles and Judith Chase, who bought their retirement home at 940 Ballard Canyon Road in 1982, were seeking $2 million in damages plus medical monitoring and medical care. The Chases' suit said the contamination rendered their water well unfit for use. Cohen said this week he cannot comment on the settlement. But he said plenty in an interview last year and in court documents.

"It's outrageous. Their lives have been ruined," he told the News-Press last year. "They find themselves living on top of a highly toxic landfill."

He claimed 14 of the Chases' cocker spaniels died as a result of landfill contamination.

"There is no dispute that the Chases' property has been rendered worthless and that the Chases have been exposed to highly toxic chemicals and suffered emotional distress," Cohen wrote.

Their neighbor, Charles Brantner, was seeking an unspecified amount in damages to his property at 942 Ballard Canyon Road.

Both the Chases and Brantner have reached settlements with the county, Chief Deputy County Counsel Stephen Underwood said.

The seventeen other people seeking damages -- arising from the contamination and its effects on their health and property -- assert that county health specialists, engineers and administrators failed to promptly investigate and remedy the contamination and to provide them with a new, safe water supply.

Stevan Larner filed a suit in January against the county and the person from whom he bought the ranch. Larner has a water well serving his home and 110-acre vineyard property across the road from the landfill.

County and state documents suggest the plume of contaminated groundwater under the landfill may be advancing toward Larner's well, especially during heavy well pumping. The ground water flow is toward the northwest.

A small crew began digging on Brantner's land Friday for eventual installation of a gas collection system. Their work has been suspended until escrow closes.