County officials have known for years that toxic substances are leaking from the First Manassas Mile Road landfill.

But they don't know how much nasty stuff is seeping out, nor how far it's migrating. And until they answer those questions, they can't decide what to do about it.

The County Commission last week decided to spend $125,000 to get those answers.

"If it's going to cost us $125,000 just to find out what the problem is, what are we looking at" in terms of cost of a solution?" Commissioner Greg Dunn asked. "It could get expensive, I'll tell you that," responded Commissioner Glen Gosa.

Studying the spillage has been delayed, county attorney Bill McNally said, because property owners surrounding the landfill refused to allow county workers to put monitoring devices on their land until recently.

"We had difficulty getting them to agree to let us come on and test. I don't think anybody could tell you the magnitude of this problem right now," said McNally.

The state Environmental Protection Division has stepped up the pressure to get the testing done and develop a plan for cleaning up the mess, said county engineer Kirk Houser, and the county's agreement with one of the property owners expires in six months.

That convinced commissioners to hire Advanced Environmental Management company of Norcross to handle the study without offering the project for bids.