CHEYENNE - Cheyenne officials are considering spending $5.9 million to buy 17,000-acres west of the city for drinking water wells, a landfill and possible public recreation opportunities.

Catch is, the land, owned by Colorado Rockies owner Jerry McMorris, once housed a U.S. government Atlas missile site and missile maintenance has left an underground plume of trichloroethylene (TCE), a carcinogen.

At least one local government observer says city officials are rushing into the deal for dubious reasons.

The Cheyenne City Council plans to take its first vote on the issue tonight at its Committee of the Whole meeting, which begins at 6:30 p.m. If the measure survives tonight's vote, a final vote is tentatively scheduled six days later.

The size of the TCE plume is currently the subject of a Wyoming Department of Quality (DEQ) study. The agency is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to identify the contamination that the federal government must clean up.

Cheyenne Mayor Jack Spiker, a proponent of the land deal, said TCE pollution in groundwater is not a major problem, because it can be removed through a fairly inexpensive aeration process.

"I guess if you're going to have a bad chemical in your water supply, this is one to have, because it's a fairly easy one to get rid of," he said.

Local resident and frequent government watchdog Pete Laybourn, however, isn't so sure.

"That idea, over a plume that is many, many miles long, deserves a lot of examination before they buy the ranch, in my opinion," Laybourn said.

Laybourn, through his experience on a citizens advisory committee dealing with a contamination clean-up at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, has concluded that TCE is difficult and expensive to clean, especially to an extent that leaves the water drinkable.

The land deal got under way early this year, when a firm acting on Morris' behalf offered to sell the bulk of what's called the Belvoir Ranch to the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities, according to board Director Jim Wilson.

The board, after talks with other city officials, has since voted to fund half of the purchase price in exchange for what could amount to 1,500 to 3,000 acre-feet of water, Wilson said.

"We felt it was a wise investment for the water for the $2,950,000," he said.

If the Cheyenne Governing Body - the nine City Council members plus the mayor - also approves the deal, the city will put up the other half of the money, according to Spiker.

He said the city has set aside about $3 million for a new landfill that will be needed in about six years, and the Board of Public Utilities has set aside a similar amount to secure more water supplies.

Wilson said the city now uses about 4,000 to 5,000 acre-feet from its well fields, which account for about a fifth to a quarter of the town's water usage. He said the city has legal rights to 5,500 acre-feet from the well fields.

Historic records on the Belvoir Ranch are "sketchy," he said, but it seems that 850 acre-feet that is currently used from the wells on the ranch could be transferred to the city for municipal use. Other aquifers under the property could bring that total to 1,500 to 3,000 acre-feet, Wilson said.

The former nuclear missile site on the property has been the subject of study by DEQ and federal agencies, according to DEQ's Jane Cramer.

Cramer, a program principal in the agency's Water Quality Division, said TCE was found in a city well in September 1998, at 1 part per billion (ppb) about 7 miles east of the old missile site.

"The city started picking up TCE and the city expressed concern about this missile site," she said.

A September 1999 sample of a nearby city well found it at 11 ppb, and in May 2002, a sample of a third nearby city well showed a TCE concentration of 13 ppb. The safe drinking water limit for the carcinogen is 5 ppb.

Cramer said a well within a mile of the missile site tested at 46 ppb. That well, which was used to water livestock, is no longer being used, she said.

DEQ is trying to determine the size and migration of the TCE plume, Cramer said.

Laybourn said he discussed the proposed land deal recently with Spiker, who said he first learned of the plume at the Governing Body's April 28 meeting when the group went into executive session, which is closed to the public.

When Laybourn questioned the reliability and ease of decontaminating TCE-polluted water, he said Spiker told him, "'You're already drinking it.'"

In a phone interview, Spiker said the city's new water treatment plant is equipped to treat water contaminated with TCE. The process is the same as that used to treat water for radon, which is also found in some Cheyenne-area water, he said.

"Every year we get these awards on how pure and clean our water is after we treat it," he said, which should indicate that what the city has been doing to purify the water is working.

Laybourn objected to the Governing Body discussing the land deal in a closed session.

State law authorizes an executive session to consider a land purchase "when the publicity regarding the consideration would cause a likelihood of an increase in price."

Because the city had an option to purchase the land at a set price, Laybourn said, the executive session was not authorized.

City Attorney Mike Basom though, argued that the price in the option to purchase was not set in stone, because the city's assessment of the property could have impacted the price.

Laybourn also alleged that city officials were rushing into the deal partly based on an overreaction to the recent drought.

"I think it just deserves a lot more scrutiny than it's gotten," he said.

For his part, Spiker said the deal has not sparked a lot of controversy thus far, though he would not speculate on what might happen at tonight's meeting.

The possible presence of American Indian artifacts or the protected Preble's Meadow jumping mouse on the land could hold up the digging of a landfill, he said, but those obstacles can be overcome.