With lawsuits and countersuits flying back and forth over who should pay for closing the West Marin Sanitary Landfill, landfill owners last week filed a $5 million lawsuit against the County of Marin, Shoreline Disposal, Bolinas Public Utility District, Stinson Beach Water District, and Waste Management (which owns Shoreline pickup service and Novato's Redwood Landfill).

The landfill's complaint was served last Wednesday, causing the abrupt cancellation of a Civic Center conference that had been scheduled for Thursday among all the parties, said Shoreline Disposal attorney, Al Bianchi.

The attorney for the Point Reyes Station landfill, Peter Brekhus, said the defendants were served in response to a declaratory-relief lawsuit filed two months ago by Shoreline Disposal - and only after mediation between all the parties had broken off.

"This is more or less a complaint we had to file," he said. "We've been greatly frustrated by the inability of the county to move forward on this and coordinate their agencies."

Here's what has happened:

Earlier this year, the landfill and its owners, the Martinelli family, sued Shoreline Disposal for breach of contract and fraud, claiming the county-franchised hauler had promised to finance the dump's application to become a transfer station once the dump stopped burying garbage in Tomasini Canyon.

The landfill finally buried its last load of trash, a truckload of marijuana delivered by Sheriff's deputies, on Sept. 1.

Later that month, in response to the Martinellis' lawsuit, Shoreline Disposal filed its declaratory relief lawsuit, asking a judge to determine exactly who is liable for the landfill's estimated $5 million closure cost, said Bianchi.

Bianchi said Shoreline Disposal's cross-complaint asked a judge to settle all the issues surrounding the dump's closure, instead of narrowly focusing on the landfill's earlier complaint about breach of contract and fraud.

"All these things would have been left unresolved. It would have been a piecemeal response addressing what I think is one of the lesser matters," he said. "Our view is they are all interrelated."

The latest complaints filed by West Marin Sanitary Landfill accuse the county of redirecting all of West Marin's garbage to Redwood Landfill without first doing any Environmental Impact Report and without amending its Integrated Waste Management Plan.

The lawsuit also alleges that the county discouraged the landfill from raising its tipping fees, thereby preventing it from raising the money necessary to pay for its own closure costs. The Martinellis are asking for compensation for turning their ranch into a dump, landfill closure and cleanup costs, as well as $5 million in punitive damages.

Supervisor Steve Kinsey will not discuss the lawsuit until he has had an opportunity to discuss it more thoroughly with the county counsel, said Kinsey's administrative aide, Liza Crosse.

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