Despite receiving a $100,000 county subsidy last year to help defray the cost of closing West Marin Sanitary Landfill, the dump's operators last week increased the fee it charges Shoreline Disposal for hauling garbage there.

The fee increase suggests that garbage bills in West Marin may go up by as much as six percent, assuming Shoreline is allowed to pass the increase onto customers. It also indicates, however, that negotiations between the county and the troubled Point Reyes Station landfill are unraveling as the deadline for closing the landfill approaches.

In a letter to Shoreline Disposal last month, landfill operator Leroy Martinelli wrote that tipping fees would jump from $67 to $80 per ton to meet "major unforeseen expenses regarding closure."

But in an agreement last October between the landfill, the county, Bolinas Public Utility District, and Stinson Beach Water District, tipping fees were allowed to go up from $47 to $67 - with $100,000 offered by the county to ward off an increase to $78 per ton. In return, the landfill promised to close by September 30, 1997.

Since then, almost all the county money has been spent on a study of the groundwater surrounding the Point Reyes Station dump. Martinelli said this week the landfill cannot pay engineers for a closure plan, which is expected to cost at least $20,000 and is due June 23 at the offices of the state Regional Water Quality Control Board.

William Fowler, the engineer hired to conduct both state-mandated reports, said his firm has backed off from the project until it gets paid for work already done. "We're doing the minimum needed to keep the landfill in compliance with regulations," he said. "We're not embarking on any new studies."

The groundwater report, or Corrective Action Feasibility Study, was completed on schedule by May 1, but it cost about $20,000 more than its projected $140,000. Both Martinelli and Fowler blamed local environmentalists for running up the cost by demanding the state require more extensive testing than usual.

As a result of the study, which revealed some pollution to the landfill property, Fowler estimates that $100,000 of construction needs to be done in the next few months to ensure the dump's groundwater is properly contained and disposed of.

He said the total cost of closing the landfill and monitoring it for the next 30 years could exceed $1 million.

Under the agreement, the landfill is allowed to raise its fees to meet unexpected costs. However, Martinelli said the agreement was flawed from the start because the rates were based on the premise that the dump receives 1,000 tons of garbage per month.

He said the dump actually needs to receive 20,000 tons of garbage a year to afford closing. Regardless, this year the landfill has averaged only 655 tons of garbage a month, he said.

Greg Bartow, the Regional Water Quality Control engineer supervising the dump's closure, said West Marin Sanitary Landfill's problem is not unique.

"The required finances have typically been a problem with small, rural landfills," he said. "They've been put in a situation where the monitoring, construction, and environmental compliance costs are increasing much faster than revenue."

Still, the landfill's decision to raise its tipping fee just after the county money ran out raises doubts over whether it can fulfill its part of the agreement and shut down on time, said John Grissim, executive director of the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin and a member of the Waste Brigade, a county task force trying to solve West Marin's garbage problem.

"It's an unfortunate, uncomfortable situation," he said. "Our concern is that the whole thing will come to a crashing halt. In the worst-case scenario, we could have a leaking, uncapped, unclosed landfill while the lawyers argue about it in court."

Supervisor Steve Kinsey said it is in everyone's best interests to avoid litigation, but noted that the county can't singlehandedly enforce the closure deadline and its compliance with state regulations.

"It's a continuing problem," he said. "There's only so much the county can do in the absence of responsible cooperation from the landfill."

The Board of Supervisors has yet to schedule a hearing to consider Shoreline Disposal's request to raise collection rates. Kinsey said he would prefer to hold the hearing after it has been decided where Shoreline will take West Marin's trash once the dump closes.

Until then, he said, Shoreline will have to shoulder the increased cost of dumping at West Marin Sanitary Landfill.

He warned, however, that the expense of closing the dump will at least partly fall on customers. "The total cost," he said, "is not likely to be fully borne by the landfill."