Dump site options considered

Experts have been brought in by the city to provide options for a decades-old dump site on property the city purchased from the DeWitt family and other owners

The long abandoned and most likely never approved dump site came to light in the December deluge, city officials said. The city has owned the property off Phillips Road, above Sun Valley since 1991, without official knowledge of its former use.

“This is a unique situation,” City Manager John Pietig said. “We don’t what the solution is at this time. We may have to take interim steps before we find a permanent answer.”

The city is talking to county regulatory agencies about the site, which was at one time outside the city limits.

Local knowledge is sketchy.

“Sometime around the 1950s, the property was used to accept trash,” said City Manager John Pietig. “Some of it was burned. What couldn’t be burned was scattered down the hillside and periodically covered with dirt “.

No permit for a landfill at the site had been found as of Wednesday.

The dump was discovered when debris poured down on a Sun Valley property in December.

“We had no idea it came from the DeWitt property, now owned by the city, but we had people walk up the watercourse until they could see the source,” Pietig said. “We didn’t know the magnitude of the dump until the soil was sampled.

“When we discovered the magnitude we started looking into options.”

Pietig said it might be months, even up to the next rainy season, before options are presented to the City Council for consideration.