County to pay dump’s back taxes

County commissioners generally prefer to collect constituents’ taxes, not pay them. But they voted unanimously Tuesday to pay a company’s delinquent property taxes.

There was no generosity in the act, nor any illegal gift of public money, according to the commissioners’ attorney, Deputy Prosecutor Jim Emacio.

That’s because the abandoned 38.5-acre private Marshall Landfill, near the old Marshall township on the West Plains, is contaminated with a long list of “volatile organic compounds” – mostly solvents such as benzene, toluene and trichloroethene.

With cleanup costs estimated at $6 million to $7 million, the property isn’t likely to attract any bidders at a sheriff’s foreclosure auction. And the dump would belong to the county after a failed auction.

Even if the county didn’t have to pay millions to cap the landfill with clay, ordinary maintenance and liability mitigation – estimated at $63,042 to $112,942 a year – would dwarf the $26,792 in back taxes.

The potential costs include ground water monitoring, fencing and patrolling the land, removal of unburied trash and weed spraying.

Emacio told commissioners he believes their “implied authority” to spend money in the public interest – recognized by the state Supreme Court – trumps the state constitutional prohibition on use of public money for private gain.

The defunct Marshall Properties and Marshall Landfill Inc. stopped paying property taxes in 1997. State law requires county treasurers to foreclose after three years of delinquencies, but then-Treasurer Linda Wolverton decided a potential penalty of $200 to $1,000 for inaction was preferable to owning the landfill.

Current Treasurer Skip Chilberg, who took office in January, decided he couldn’t shirk the duty in good conscience.

Chilberg took the same position with regard to the defunct Plaza Grange Supply Co. gasoline station and store near Rosalia, on Old State Route 195, whose leaky gasoline tanks have contaminated the ground.

Plaza Grange Supply owes $14,144 in property taxes dating from 2001, but county officials believe its cleanup liability is far less than the landfill’s. Commissioners decided to run the risk and allow the gasoline station to go to auction.

One reason is that Assessor Ralph Baker’s staff decided the Plaza Grange Supply property still has value. Appraisers declined to reduce the assessed value to nearly nothing, as they did for the landfill, so commissioners would have to keep paying taxes every year to prevent a foreclosure auction.

Emacio told commissioners they probably can’t do anything to force Plaza Grange Supply’s directors to clean up the site, but commissioners decided to pressure the state Department of Ecology to do something about the Marshall Landfill.

The landfill is one of 42 “hazardous sites” under review by the department, but 21 of them are considered more urgent.

Commissioners plan to send letters urging Gov. Chris Gregoire and Ecology Department Director Jay Manning to be more aggressive about the landfill.

Also, commissioners directed county employees to do what they can to prevent illegal dumping that still occurs at the landfill.