Supervisors authorize monitoring contract for inactive dumps

San Diego County Board of Supervisors have directed staff to advertise for bids and then award a contract for groundwater monitoring programs at county-maintained inactive landfills, including the one in Ramona.

Although the county divested its solid waste operations in 1997, the county still has responsibility for environmental control of its inactive landfills, burn sites and bin sites, including adjacent buffer properties. The county has used consultants to monitor its inactive landfills, even when it was still operating disposal sites, and consultants have been used for groundwater monitoring programs since 1993 and for gas monitoring and control since 1996.

The existing groundwater monitoring contract ends on Aug. 18, 2010.

The new contract will be for six years.

According to the county, the consultant for groundwater-related services will perform routine groundwater monitoring and reporting as needed, including regular testing of groundwater, data evaluation by a certified laboratory and preparation of regular reports to submit to the Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Consultant responsibilities also include non-routine work as needed, such as equipment repair and replacement, attendance at public meetings, presentations and data gathering.

The consultant may also do special projects required by the county or by federal or state regulatory agencies such as expanding a groundwater monitoring network to determine the nature and extent of groundwater impacts, reviewing data to determine the feasibility of mitigation methods for sites with impacted groundwater, implementing the remediation, and investigating burn sites and their potential impact to groundwater.

The contract will be managed by a program coordinator assigned to the landfill management section of the county’s Department of Public Works.