Duarte : Testing at Landfill OKd

The Redevelopment Agency, still angry that the city is being forced to pay for expensive ground-water tests at the site of a closed landfill it owns, has voted to complete testing rather than face heavy fines for non-compliance.

The city paid the engineering firm of Lockman & Associates $20,000 earlier this year to prepare a preliminary report outlining a proposed testing program to avoid fines by the Regional Water Quality Control Board, but has vowed to fight paying any of the costs of determining whether the ground-water under the former landfill is polluted.

Solid wastes were dumped at the landfill, which was closed in 1971. It was bought by the city in 1978 and turned into a nine-hole golf course.

Under the Solid Waste Assessment Tests Law, operators of active and inactive landfills in California are required to determine whether hazardous wastes are leaking from the sites. If there is no operator, the owner must pay for the tests.

The Redevelopment Agency, which owns the landfill, voted last week to pay Lockman & Associates an additional $40,000 to install monitoring wells and sample water and soil. Meanwhile, the city attorney has been asked to determine whether the Redevelopment Agency has any legal recourse to recover its costs.