Landfill Firm Offers Buyout

In an attempt to ease fears about a proposed landfill’s effect on nearby property values, a waste-management company has offered to buy the 24 parcels of land that sit nearest the Campo Indian Reservation dump site in East San Diego County.

In letters sent out last month, the company, Mid-American Waste Systems, promised that, if and when the dump opens for business, it will pay interested property owners “fair market value” plus 10% for parcels that have attracted no other buyers after 120 days on the market.

By making such an offer, Mid-American is hoping both to calm anxious property owners and to send a message to Washington--specifically, to Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan. In recent months, Lujan has become the focus of intense lobbying over the proposed non-hazardous solid-waste landfill, which would occupy 600 of the Campo Indians’ 15,000 acres.

In March, Donna Tisdale, a Boulevard rancher and founder of a citizens’ group called Back Country Against the Dump, met with Lujan personally to air her objections to the project, which she believes will endanger the well water upon which all backcountry residents depend.

Then last week, Christopher L. White, president of Mid-American, sent Lujan a letter outlining “progressive actions” the company had taken to address the community’s concerns--among them, the buyout offer.

“We strive to become a sound member of each and every community we enter,” wrote White, who pointedly informed Lujan that the offer--called a “Property Value Protection Agreement”--had already been extended to Tisdale, “who I believe you have met.”

Tisdale and her husband, Ed, who own the 120-acre Morning Star ranch just east of the proposed dump site, have told the company that they have no intention of signing the buyout agreement.

“It’s a joke, except it’s not very funny,” said Ed Tisdale. When one Mid-American official asked him what he thought of the two-page agreement, he said he replied, “It’s a little bit too rough to use for toilet paper.”

But some other people who own property on the reservation’s perimeter said they were glad to get the offer.

“We’re going to sign it. We figure, ‘Why not?’ ” said Roseann Wisely, who lives with her husband, Tom, on 14 acres south of the site. “If they went ahead and put the landfill in, and we hadn’t sold our house yet, we know we definitely could. We figure we can probably get more money their way.”

Jay Roberts, Mid-American’s vice president for landfill operations and the director of the Campo project, said four property owners have signed the agreement so far. Six more copies of the offer were returned because of incorrect addresses, he said, and one came back with a nasty letter attached--and no signature.

The agreement would only apply after the landfill opened for business--a condition that Doris Cole, who owns 7 acres, compared to the company saying, “We’ll pay you what it’s worth when we’ve ruined it.”

To counter such skepticism, the agreement includes a clause that would allow the land to be appraised based on comparable parcels 2 miles or farther away from the dump. The agreement also guarantees that, in the event of any ground-water contamination, Mid-American will pay the costs of providing residents with an alternate water source.

Roberts said that, if he were a local homeowner, he would sign it--and when the company has made similar offers in other parts of the country, he said, most homeowners usually do.

“I see nothing to lose, unless you have some principle problem,” he said. “There are no strings attached. This is not an agreement where they have to sell their home. . . . They’re risking nothing. They can still oppose the project. Were just giving them the ability to protect their property values.”

Indeed, a letter accompanying the offer assures that, by entering into the agreement, “the property owner is not relinquishing his rights to oppose the project, bring suit against the project or seek damages.”

Sig Samuels, an El Cajon real estate broker who owns 8 acres east of the dump site, said he will sign the agreement if Mid-American will make it transferable to his current tenants, who are leasing the land with an option to buy. The company has said the agreement is nontransferable, but, if it makes an exception, Samuels said, he will sign.

“My business is real estate, and I felt it was a fair offer,” he said.

But some recipients of the letter said that, although the offer was tempting, they were reluctant to give the appearance of supporting the landfill.

“They say this does not prevent us from opposing the dump, but as soon as you sign that you’re more or less saying, ‘I’ll keep quiet,’ ” said Helen Willoughby, who owns 77 acres east of the dump. Although she hasn’t ruled it out, she said she is leaning against signing. “I realize I may lose my shirt. If my water is contaminated, then what is the property worth? But I don’t think the agreement is in my favor.”

Frankie R. Smith, a rabbit rancher who owns a parcel south of the dump site, agreed that a signature is tantamount to a vote of confidence in the company.

“I felt like, if I signed it, it would be saying, ‘I believe you guys are going to come in there,’ ” she said. “I just wasn’t comfortable with it.”

Donna Tisdale, meanwhile, has begun researching Mid-American’s track record with other communities near its landfills. And she has dissected the agreement, which she says suffers from a “city-boy” approach to a rural area.

The offer to appraise land based on comparable parcels 2 miles or more away from the dump is inadequate, she says, because she expects land values to drop in a much larger area.

“Our geologist is saying he wants a 35-square-mile impact zone because of the contamination he fears,” she said, noting that an underground system of fractured bedrock links the waterways that feed local wells throughout the area. “So what kind of ‘fair market value’ are you going to get?”

Tisdale also questions the company’s promise to truck water to residents in the event of an accident. She says her neighbors’ water needs go far beyond what comes out of a kitchen tap. For the ranchers, organic gardeners and pig and rabbit farmers in the area, water absorbed by the soil is another concern.

If ground water was contaminated, she said, “It would change the whole area and basically condemn it. And they’re talking about bringing in a truckload of water to fill a tank. . . . That’s the city-boy perspective.”

She echoed her husband’s opinion of the agreement, saying, “We have 30 years worth of blood, sweat and tears invested here. It’s pride and love of the land. Where are you going to buy 30 years of work? You can’t. Some things are just not for sale.”

Roberts, meanwhile, acknowledges that Mid-American is concerned about the pressure San Diego’s congressional delegation is placing on Lujan “to do something with these projects.” The Campo project is one of three landfills in the county proposed on Indian land, and Roberts said his company is hoping to persuade Lujan that Mid-American is acting responsibly.

In the package sent to Lujan last week, the company also included a description of a pollution liability insurance policy it has recently acquired that Roberts said would cover any environmental damage on or off the landfill site.