Work continues on landfill cleanup

Philip Johnson

In April 1997, ABC received a Public Participation Grant of $25,000 from the Washington State Department of Ecology that has provided ABC with a technical advisor and funds to educate the citizens of Bainbridge Island regarding the landfill at Vincent Road. For more than 10 years ABC and the Bucklin Hill Neighborhood Association (an ABC neighborhood group) have been involved with the cleanup of this dumping site due to their concern with the contamination of groundwater. The flow of contaminants out from the site has been reported on in previous issues of Scotch Broom by ABC's technical advisor Erick Miller of the Bainbridge Island firm Associated Earth Sciences. Now, recent cooperation on the part of Kitsap County, owners of the site, has made the cleanup more and more of a possibility.

A number of events have occurred at the landfill in the past few months that

are worth reviewing. First, additional off-site monitoring wells have been installed on private property through the efforts of Kitsap County and the Department of Ecology (see map below). These wells will provide data necessary to understand the extent and direction of ground

In another recent event, ABC learned that a landowner has been informed by the Bremerton-Kitsap County Health District that he cannot hook up an additional house to an existing well because of the proximity of the well to the landfill site, even though he was assured that he could hook up two houses to the well. The well appears to be within 1,000 feet of the landfill, and under state law, no wells are to be drilled within a 1,000-foot radius of a landfill. Several alternatives have been recommended, and negotiations are continuing in hopes of resolving this problem.

Next, the County has installed additional surface water runoff controls at the landfill. A catch basin will prevent rainwater from pooling on the landfill cap, thus draining standing water that had previously soaked through the cap into the refuse below, adding to the leachate contamination of the groundwater.

In September The Review ran an editorial encouraging Kitsap County to cap the site immediately with appropriate material rather than spending any more money studying the problem. Although ABC is encouraged by The Review's interest in rectifying the problem, they failed to recognize other alternatives. One of these, which is to remove the refuse from the site, was recommended in a letter from the Bucklin Hill Neighborhood Association to the County Commissioners early in the cleanup process. This approach is now being considered by the County.

The Feasibility Study, a report that considers cleanup alternatives, will soon be underway now that the Remedial Investigation is nearing completion. The County and Department of Ecology plan an open meeting sometime in December. Neighbors of the Vincent Road Landfill and other interested citizens are urged to attend. ABC's Technical Advisory Committee is comprised of Philip Johnson, Kathy Alger, Dale Spoor, Michael Dauber and Charles Schmid. If you would like further information from ABC, please contact Philip Johnson at 780-2681, or ABC at 842-5313.¦

"Recent cooperation
on the part of Kitsap County, owners of the site, has made the cleanup more and more of a possibility."

water contaminants moving from the landfill. ABC appreciates the efforts by the government officials who negotiated with adjacent landowners for the installation of these wells.

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New well-monitoring locations