South Lake Tahoe, Calif. – The U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit reminds snowmobilers, snowshoers, cross-country skiers, mountain bikers, off-highway vehicle users and other recreationists that the Meyers Landfill site off Pioneer Trail near South Lake Tahoe remains closed due to safety hazards.
Construction at the site will continue next summer. The site has been winterized, but safety hazards remain, including steep, irregular slopes with a slippery plastic cover, rock-lined channels, partially buried fencing, metal standpipes, concrete bollards, and roped-together sandbags.
The Meyers Landfill has been under a closure order since 1997. In June 2010, the Forest Service expanded the closure to include the area from Garbage Dump Rd. to Saxon Creek, due to impacts from construction activities. The Forest Service has extended this closure through Dec. 31, 2012.
The Meyers Landfill was a municipal landfill operated by El Dorado County under a Forest Service special use permit from approximately 1955 to 1971. Groundwater beneath the site has been impacted by water leaching through the decomposing landfill waste. This has resulted in a groundwater contaminant plume extending approximately 1,600 feet down-gradient from the site.
In November 2007, the Forest Service issued a Record of Decision to remediate the landfill waste mass by installing an impermeable cover, preventing groundwater contact with the landfill waste and capturing landfill gas emitted from waste decomposition. The agency continues to work with contractors to investigate the contaminated groundwater plume and determine whether additional measures are necessary to address it.
For more information on the Meyers Landfill site, including a map of the closure area, the forest closure order, the Record of Decision and the Remedial Design, visit http://www.fs.usda.goto/ltbmu/
