Bonzi Timeline: Down In The Dump

State officials have been worried about contamination from Bonzi Sanitation Landfill for more than 20 years:

• 1967: Rudy Bonzi begins operating a garbage dump near the Tuolumne River three miles southwest of Modesto.

• 1978: By this point, the landfill has accepted about 2 million cubic yards of waste.

• 1983: State officials determine that the landfill is polluting groundwater.

• 1985: Among 1,800 landfills in California, Bonzi is named among the 150 potentially most hazardous. About this time, the landfill closes to the public but continues receiving waste from garbage trucks.

• 2003: California Regional Water Quality Control Board issues a cleanup order to Bonzi.

• 2004: Water board issues another cleanup order.

• 2005: In April, the water board issues a cease-and-desist order, saying Bonzi failed to identify the extent of groundwater pollution and must take steps to end it. In July, Bonzi is cited for inadequate cover on waste cells. In December, a lawsuit in Stanislaus County Superior Court ends in a stipulated judgment requiring that Bonzi pay $500,000 in fines and exposing the landfill to $1.4 million in additional penalties if improvements are not made in three years.

• 2006: The water board issues cleanup and abatement order, saying Bonzi must close because the landfill continues polluting groundwater and emitting gases, and requiring monitoring of a well supplying drinking water to the Riverdale Park neighborhood.

• 2007: The water board issues a waste discharge order, saying it's unlikely that Bonzi's extraction system is capturing all of the tainted groundwater plume.

• 2009: In July, state Attorney General Jerry Brown sues landfill, claiming breach of the 2005 judgment and water code violations. In August, the water board issues two cleanup orders to the landfill, requiring that waste from a July fire be hauled away and that it show it has properly disposed of illegally discharged sulfur.

Source: Bee research