San Marcos Mulling Legal Remedy to Bradley Park Landfill Issue

By Ned Randolph, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.

Jan. 23–SAN MARCOS — Still unable to determine who is responsible for monitoring and possibly cleaning up the old county landfill beneath Bradley Park, the city is now considering legal action to resolve the issue with the county.

The city manager and city attorney will brief the City Council on the city’s options at a special hearing tonight prior to the regular city council meeting.

Fears of water contamination began after two heavy rains in 2005 and 2006, when rusty colored water was discovered in a ditch at Bradley Park along Rancho Santa Fe Road, which lies on top of the old Linda Vista Landfill.

The city was ordered by the Water Quality Control Board to investigate the water’s source and then in August ordered to begin ground-water testing around the soccer fields and develop a plan to remove any contaminated surface water.

“When the order was first issued, we wrote to the water board and pointed out our historic agreement with the county. We thought it was the county’s responsibility to assume those obligations,” said Richard Opper, the city’s hired attorney. “We learned the county had a different view.”

The city has received two extensions from the Regional Water Quality Board to develop and implement its monitoring program. The most recent extension was granted on Jan. 7, which gives the city until May 18 to comply.

Meanwhile, the county has denied the city’s request to help pay for the monitoring program and is fighting the city’s efforts to ask the water quality board to intervene.

“This is really a tug of war between the city and county — and the water board is acting like a judge,” said Opper.

The landfill was operated by the county from 1948 to the late 1960s. And since 1986, responsibility for the landfill has been shared by the county and city under a limited agreement, which basically says the city is responsible for the park and the county is responsible for the landfill, city officials say.

A call to county landfill officials was referred to senior attorney James O’Day, who was out of the office.

However, in a previous interview, O’Day said enhancements to Bradley Park since 1986 changed the county’s view of its role.

“There were large changes made to the site after that — ball fields, soccer fields and all sorts of improvements on the top deck of the landfill,” he said.

And the county apparently has no intention of sharing the city’s burden.

The city filed a legal brief in November asking the regional board to share the burden of the order with the county. The county then appealed in a separate brief filed on Dec. 31, which was followed by another city brief on Jan. 8, Opper said.

The regional water quality board would not provide a copy of the brief on Monday, saying it had only one copy on file, which was not available.

Opper said he had hoped the water quality board would make a decision on the county’s responsibility by the end of this month. However, Amy Grove, an analyst for the water quality board, said the issue would take an uncertain amount of time to settle.

“I’m not sure, because the two agencies will at some point come into the office and present their arguments, and eventually it will go before the board,” she said.

The city of San Marcos, which legally took over the property after the Linda Vista Landfill closed, is listed as the responsible party by the water quality board.

Opper said the city is pursuing parallel tracks on the issue — while it seeks relief from the county, it is also preparing a monitoring program as ordered by the board.

“The city is on track to undertake testing and remediation, which it does so reluctantly because of the agreement with county,” Opper said. “We’re going to do it, but at the same time we’re really trying to focus the regulatory agencies attention on historic facts.”

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Copyright (c) 2007, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.

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