By
Ayse Guner
Arizona Daily Wildcat
University doesn't want role in sealing the landfill
A state-run auction next month to sell about a third of Tumamoc Hill have brought the landfill covered with UA waste to the forefront of discussion.
Ongoing talks concerning what will happen to about 365,000 tons of waste in the landfill disposed by the UA and the city of Tucson during the 1960s may not be resolved for quite awhile, UA officials said.
The dialogue has been going on for the last two decades.
After almost 40 years, the waste is now exposed, and malodorous landfill gas seeps out of the ground, said Jay Quade, director of the UA Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill.
"We are in the middle of negotiations, we haven't reached a decision yet," said M.J. Dillard, senior engineering associate for the solid waste management department.
No environmental testing was conducted on the landfill and whether the landfill contains any hazardous substance is unknown, Dillard said.
"Nobody knew the staff was bad and things weren't inspected by then," she said.
If the landfill requires only a sealant, the cost is expected to be $1 million. However, an additional environmental and soil testing would raise the cost to between $2 and $3 million, she added.
The UA will not commit to playing a role in sealing the landfill, but is taking part in the discussion about what action will be taken, said Steven Holland, UA director of risk management and safety.
"The goal is to reach some conclusion that everybody is happy with," Holland said.
In March, the city commissioned a soil gas survey at the landfill as a part of Tucson's landfill investigation. The results suggested that low levels of tetrachloroethylene - a volatile compound found in Tucson waters - is beneath portions of the landfill's surface, according to the Environmental Management Division, the group who conducted the survey.
"Compared to others around Tucson, there is no alarming concern, but because the property is not owned by the city, the test stayed very limited," Dillard said. "If there is any contamination to the underground water, then we would clean it up.
"We don't know what's out there," she said.
The Tumamoc Hill, 1675 W. Anklam Rd., is 869-acres of property. UA has controlled 549 acres since 1957.
The UA geosciences department and the UA ecology and evolutionary biology department jointly operate the Desert Laboratory on the property with the U.S. Geological Survey.
The laboratory is the oldest ongoing research site of desert plants in the world and is used for desert vegetation, scientific research and field trips along with teaching, said Jan Price, program coordinator for the laboratory.
Between 1962 and 1966, the UA and the city of Tucson agreed to fill 20 acres on the west side of the hill once opened by people searching for clay.
To prevent the hikers from falling into this hole, the UA along with the city filled it with municipal solid waste generated by the campus, Holland said.
The rest of the 320 acres of property - where the landfill is located - is owned by the State Land Department and now in the process of selling it to the Pima County for $2.68 million.
However, because of the landfill, "the Pima County is having a second thought about the land buy," said Arlan Colton, who works for the State Land Department part time to oversee the landfill.
The state-run auction of the property is planned for Oct. 27.
"If county or no bidder shows up at the auction and if the landfill issue won't resolve, then in the long term the scientific research on the land is in jeopardy," Colton said.
The landfill is a quarter-mile away from some experimental sites "but there is no direct effect on us," Quade said.
Quade said he thinks the landfill is a very damaged area and that action should be taken to clean up the exposed trash.
"Nothing has been done, which is sad," he said.
Paul Martin, a geosciences professor who works in the lab, said when the wind blew, trash and papers would blow up from the landfill to the sites.
In the late 80s several fires occurred on the landfill.
"Smoke came out, neighbors complained and the fire department put it out," Holland said.
Tucson wants to take the responsibility of the landfill, Dillard said.
"The city would love to clean the whole thing, but someone has to provide some money," she said. "Because of it (clean-up), what doesn't get funded is a dilemma."
