start digging and find you can’t build there at

start digging and find you can’t build there at all.” Proceeding without additional groundwater studies is taking a “great risk . . . It’s a question of insurance. This groundwater investigation IS your insurance,” he told the supervisors. “You can’t buy a policy (to protect the county from liability for environmental degradation), so you should take the time and effort to find out what’s down there.”

Mr. Silverman agreed that phasing is “a perfectly responsible and sensible approach” to a major capital improvements project. But the board should have an estimate on total cost, he maintained. “Phasing doesn’t mean ‘Let’s spend a little now and see what else we have to come up with later*. ”

He described the $185,000 purchase price of the 99-acre Stover tract as just a “down payment” on the landfill. “Certainly that will be less than 10 percent of your total cost. Even the rest of Phase I will be $2 million, maybe closer to $4 million. Before you do too much more, someone’s got to tell you how much it’s going to cost. . . The issue is affordability. Where’s the money going to come from? From the taxpayers? From user fees?” He raised the possibility of the county getting financial help, either through loans or outright grants, from the Farmers Home Administration, but noted that to qualify for this assistance, a total cost estimate must be developed.

Defending engineer Leonard Joyce’s work, Supervisor Nelson Lane said the county hired his firm “not to prove one case or another, not to justify or shoot down a particular site . . . But your group hired a man with a specific interest in shooting this thing down . . . Our geologist went in with an open mind. We can only hope that what he’s done is right.”

“We’ve gone about (finding a potential landfill site and proceeding with the permit approval process) in