Photo by Charlotte Hill Cobb

Former landfill near Balloon Fiesta Park used as RV campground.

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A campground that hosts thousands of recreational vehicles every year during the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta has been declared off-limits after state inspectors discovered 15 safety hazards with electrical equipment on the site.

It's not clear if the problems can be fixed in time for this fall's fiesta, a city official says.

The land in question is the 78-acre former Los Angeles Landfill. It lies just south of Balloon Fiesta Park and every year hosts 1,200 to 1,500 RVs as part of the fiesta. As a campground, the land brings in at least $100,000 a year for the fiesta, one official estimated.

The hazards include insecure circuit breakers, substandard equipment and electric lines that run near water lines or standing pools of water, according to a report issued in April by the state Occupational Health and Safety Bureau.

"It is my recommendation that the existing service equipment for the RV use be de-energized and removed," wrote state consultant Gene Ostmeyer, who said the system presented a "potentially huge liability."

Fiesta volunteers installed the electrical system in the 1980s, said Paul Smith, the executive director of the balloon fiesta.

The violations were discovered as a follow-up to an investigation into the death of Mary Carnes, a city environmental scientist who was discovered dead at the landfill Aug. 3.

The cause of Carnes' death is unclear, according to an autopsy report. She had been reading a meter in an enclosed space. An insurance investigator ruled that she died of asphyxiation, possibly due to methane gas from the landfill.

The city has strictly limited access to the landfill as a result of the state report, said Rhonda Mechvin, an engineer with the Environmental Health Department.

"Balloonists are no longer allowed to use the landfill as a landing zone except in the event of an emergency," she said.

Anyone visiting the site must also have a city escort.

"We're just taking all the precautions that we think we need to take," said Mary Lou Leonard, an associate director of the Environmental Health Department.

The city will be meeting with state officials to discuss what will happen with the landfill, she said.

"We're very optimistic about coming up with a solution that works for everybody," Leonard said. "We just don't know what the answer is yet."

Still, Smith said, "If balloon fiesta was tomorrow, we'd have a big issue."

The situation is even more troubling to Steve Wentworth, chairman of the city's Balloon Fiesta Park Policy and Advisory Board.

Wentworth's group has lobbied for several years, he said, to have work done on the landfill. It ranked the project as a higher priority than other projects the city has favored - such as a reflecting pool and new restrooms at the park.

"They're kind of picking and choosing the priorities, if you will," Wentworth said.

In 2003, Mayor Martin Chavez's administration did propose to spend $1.5 million on a comprehensive fix for the landfill, a project centered around grading and drainage, Mechvin said. The task is complicated because decomposing garbage in the landfill creates subsidence problems.

The project went out to bid, and no one could do the project for less than $2.1 million, Mechvin said, putting it on hold.

Last year, the administration proposed taking $489,000 out of that fund, but the City Council eventually rewrote the omnibus spending bill and put the money back in.

The administration wanted to do something with the money rather than have it sit in a bank account, said John Castillo, the director of the Department of Municipal Development.

"I think the decision is, let's go and do something today because we're trying to grow a city," he said. In general though, "we've clearly demonstrated that we're out trying to do something on the landfill," he added.

In the most recent infrastructure budget proposal earlier this year, the administration didn't set aside any money for landfill improvements, though it did reserve $4 million for improvements at the park proper, Castillo said. The council rewrote the bill and added $450,000 for "grading, drainage improvements, utility rehabilitation and any other action required to protect the health and safety of the public," gutting the general park improvements in the process.

That's still not enough money for the comprehensive park upgrade, Castillo said, noting that the cost of the project has likely risen since the original bid. The city, he said, will be looking to partner with the state and federal government to make the improvements.

"We're going to have to make a commitment to do it," said City Council President Debbie O'Malley. "I think that's why it's good to bring these things out in the open, so the public is aware of the issue and realizes the importance of it."