In a tense meeting with county officials and local activists, lawyers for West Marin Sanitary Landfill on Friday pressed forward with plans to close the dump and create a transfer station.

Landfill majority owner Leroy Martinelli hopes to install a temporary site on dump property where West Marin garbage and recyclables can be collected and shipped elsewhere.

The county has required the landfill to submit a summary of its plans by March.

Meanwhile, landfill attorney Bill Yeates last week wrote to Phil Buchanan, manager of Bolinas Public Utility District, arguing that BPUD, along with the county and Stinson Beach Water District, are responsible for sharing the cost of closing the landfill.

"It is quite clear from existing case law... that Marin County and the two districts that have used and benefitted from the operation of the West Marin Sanitary Landfill can be required to bear a significant cost in connection with any future closure of this landfill, if there are insufficient funds to cover the costs of closure," Yeates wrote.

Yeates' assertion was roundly rejected by county officials, lawyers, and directors from the two utility districts.

"I don't agree with his conclusion that BPUD is a governmental agency that shared in operation of the dump," said Director Jack Siedman, a lawyer who has represented opponents of the dump in the past

"He's in error," Siedman said. "He's got BPUD sharing in the [landfill's] revenue. What? We've never shared in the revenue and would never want to."

Siedman noted that BPUD simply administers a "pass through" fee from Bolinas residents to Shoreline Disposal for curbside garbage collection, and that BPUD does not profit from the deal.

"Each person in Bolinas is an independent customer of Shoreline," he explained.

Stinson Beach Water District handles its Shoreline Disposal contract similarly. Garbage-pickup rates for the remainder of West Marin residents are negotiated by the county Waste Management office.

Another BPUD director, Jack McClellan, attended last Friday's landfill meeting at Civic Center. He said he nearly walked out when the subject arose of BPUD's liability.

"I was reluctant to stay, lest [my presence] be construed as some kind of promise" that the district would share in dump-closure costs, McClellan told The Light Monday.

The director said that "based on what I heard [at the meeting], the likelyhood is nil" that West Marin residents will be stuck with a closure bill.

He said BPUD will seek the best deal for Bolinas residents and not necessarily support Martinelli's plans for a transfer station.

Stinson Beach Water District Director Richard Gamble, who is also a consultant in waste business, said his district had not received the same letter, but he agreed that the idea of passing dump-closure costs onto the public is "far-fetched."

Like BPUD, Stinson Beach Water District directors have been talking to Shoreline Disposal about "viable alternatives" to the Point Reyes Station dump, Gamble said.

Mark Riesenfeld, director of the Marin Community Development Agency, also rejected Yeates' argument. "The county has never taken that position," he said, adding that Yeates' letter cited dump cases involving hazardous materials.

Yeates and Martinelli believe that revenues from the transfer station could offset the cost of closing the landfill - a cost Yeates estimates at $750,000 not including state-mandated longterm monitoring.

Yeates noted that the dump currently has a little more than $100,000 in a closure fund.

Inverness Park's Herb Kutchins of the Sierra Club's Marin Group this week wondered how a temporary transfer station could produce enough revenue to finance closure of the dump.

The landfill now brings roughly $800,000 annually in revenue, according to its own financial statements. Assuming revenues at a transfer station were the same, with a profit, say, of 15 percent, it would take more than five years to collect the $750,000 for closure.

Martinelli's idea of a "temporary" transfer station just "doesn't add up," Kutchins said.

Commented Riesenfeld, "An interim transfer station isn't going to fund longterm closure of the dump. A permanent transfer station might."

Yeates ominously told The Light that if Martinelli can't raise the necessary funds, Yeates might have to be replaced by bankruptcy lawyers.

Aside from BPUD's McClellan and landfill attorneys Yeates and Mark Armstrong, those attending Friday's meeting at Civic Center included Kutchins; John Grissim, executive director of the Environmental Action Committee; John Robbins and Weibke Buxbaum of Waste Watch; and EAC attorney Christy Taylor.

Representing the county were Riesenfeld plus Ed Stewart, Cynthia Barnard, and Robert Turner of the Environmental Health Department.

Grissim said he and his colleagues expected something closer to a brainstorming session about West Marin garbage disposal, "but we walked in there, and they were all set to put [a transfer station] in place...

"Yes, we were very forceful last Friday," he acknowledged. "I regret that it was as tense as is was."

Yeates and Martinelli told The Light this week that they were irritated at the local dump critics' nitpicking. After a recent, informal, cordial meeting between landfill representives and a couple of anti-dump activists in Olema, they said the complaints that surfaced in Friday's meeting took them by surprise.

"I was a little miffed," said landfill Yeates this week, adding that Friday's meeting revealed a "tremendous level of mistrust."

Among other complaints, dump critics rapped the county's scrutiny of the landfill's finances. EAC's Grissim called a recent, county-mandated audit of the books "a flimsy piece of garbage."

Indeed, the accounting firm that looked at the landfill's books, McLoughlin, Briese, and Yip of Larkspur, noted that the lack of information provided by the landfill left the audit fruitless.

"[Landfill] management has elected to omit substantially all of the disclosures required by generally accepted accounting principles," the accountants wrote in a summary.

"If the omitted disclosures were included in the financial statements, they might influence the user's conclusions about the company's financial position, and results of operation."

Grissim complained, "I can't get my community to chip in [higher dumping fees] if we can't get the landfill to give us an honest look at the books."

Riesenfeld countered this week that the useless audit is not a "big deal," noting that it had been requested back when the landfill was trying to increase incoming tonnage, a plan dead now for months.

"The fact that it's adequate or inadequate is irrelevant," Riesenfeld said. When Martinelli applies for a new use permit, he said, the county "will require a much higher standard of information."

Grissim said he and Yeates have cleared the air since Friday's meeting, and that efforts to resolve the long-standing battle over the dump are headed in the right direction.

"I think it's fair to say the situation is moving toward a resolution," he said. "I think it's time to make the compromises that are necessary ... and declare a substantial victory."