Opponents of Planned Landfill Fear Contamination of Ground Water : Environment: But for Indians of the Campo Reservation the project is a last-ditch economic chance.

Nearly one year ago, Tribal Chairman Ralph Goff looked out his window at the inhospitable highlands that make up the Campo Indian Reservation and considered the promise of landfills.

“There isn’t a whole lot you can do out here,” he said, gesturing toward the 15,000-acre reservation, one of the poorest corners of southeastern San Diego County, that is home to more than 200 Mission Indians. There isn’t enough traffic to support a truck stop, he said. Bingo is an unlikely money-maker in that remote a locale. Trash, he said, is the reservation’s best hope for economic survival.

“We’re all for it,” he said of a proposal--vehemently opposed by the surrounding community--to build a landfill on Indian land. “We’ll make sure it’s done right.”

Now, Goff stands on the brink of getting his way. Earlier this month, the Campo Band of Mission Indians contracted with an Ohio waste management company to build a 600-acre landfill and trash recycling plant worth $15 million to $22 million on their land.

The tribe has begun the process of obtaining approval from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. And if all goes as planned, the dump will begin accepting up to 3,000 tons of trash a day by mid-1992.

Under the contract, Mid-American Waste Systems Inc., a 5-year-old Columbus-based company, gains the rights to operate the landfill until it is full of 30 million tons of waste--probably about 40 years. In return, said a spokesman for the tribe, the Indians will receive a “substantial” up-front payment, monthly royalties once the plant is built and first dibs on jobs at the dump.

“Full employment is a primary goal for the tribe, and we think there will be a job for everyone that wants one,” said Kevin Gover, an Albuquerque-based lawyer who is representing the Campo tribe. He refused to specify how much money the tribe will receive, but said, “We think there will be sufficient revenue going to the tribe to allow (it) to build a viable economic base.”

The signing of the contract comes as several San Diego County landfills are nearing capacity, sending civic leaders scrambling to find new sites. The city and county of San Diego have included the Campo reservation on a list of 10 possible sites to replace the Miramar, Sycamore and Otay landfills. All three are expected to close within a decade.

The agreement also comes amid a battle over a controversial bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Rancho San Diego), that would require some Indian tribes to abide by strict state regulations when planning garbage dumps on their sovereign lands. Sovereignty places the land outside the jurisdiction of the county, the state and even the U.S. government.

The bill, which passed the Legislature last month, would require state intervention only in cases where there is reason to believe there would be a “spill-over” effect on surrounding non-Indian land. But even Peace’s chief of staff, David Takashima, predicts the bill will be vetoed by Gov. George Deukmejian.

“My guess is that the odds are at this point against this,” Takashima said. “But there’s always a glimmer of hope.”

All this comes as a blow to Donna Tisdale, a rancher who lives within view of the proposed dump site. For more than a year, as the Campo tribe has considered various bids from several waste management companies, Tisdale and dozens of her neighbors have fought tirelessly to protect their ground water by trying to block plans for a landfill.

Tisdale and her neighbors--and the Mission Indians themselves--are completely dependent on well water. The nearest water district is in Alpine, about 40 miles west. So protecting that water has become a labor of survival.

Tisdale has talked to Mike Patton, a vice president at Mid-American Waste Systems. She has heard him describe the safety precautions his company takes to prevent the leeching of toxics into the water table--from multiple protective liners to methane detection systems to ground water monitoring. She has heard the claims that this will be the best, most state-of-the-art landfill in the state.

“That doesn’t impress us at all,” she said flatly. She has done her homework on Patton’s company, she says, and is concerned that of its 14 landfills in five states, the company bought 13 already built--so the Campo landfill would be only the second fully constructed by Mid-American.

Patton confirmed that, but said the company’s reputation and track record is excellent.

“We take very good care of the communities that we’re in and very good care of the environment,” he said. “We use the best available technology. We don’t risk contaminating the water.”

Patton confirmed that, in keeping with the Indians’ claim to full sovereignty for the lands, neither his company nor the tribe will apply for state or local government permits to build the waste facility. But he said the landfill will exceed federal and state environmental standards and called the dump’s opponents uninformed.

“They are not fully aware of what can be done,” he said. “I’m not going to contend that any (protective) liner in the world is foolproof, because it’s not. Nothing is guaranteed. But you don’t have all your assets riding on one safety factor. There is more than one line of defense.”

Gover, the tribe’s lawyer, said that one-quarter of the money the tribe receives will be used to regulate the landfill and to ensure it is built and run in accordance with strict environmental safeguards. Economically desperate, he said, the Indians have come to this solution after much soul-searching. But they are determined to execute it well.

“Even if there were some (other) sort of venture that was viable, it would require capital to start,” Gover said. “We could not find another industry that was willing to come in and capitalize up front other than the waste industry.

“The tribe considered many options. They come to it with great reluctance and a sense of regret that this was what they have to do to develop an economy on their reservation,” he said. “But if this is what we have to do, we sure as hell are going to do it right.”