Council Approves Landfill Expansion

Despite opposition from neighbors, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved a major expansion of Sunshine Canyon Landfill into Granada Hills, providing a place to send the city’s trash for the next 26 years.

The vote was 9 to 5, with Councilman Hal Bernson and four other San Fernando Valley representatives voting against. Approving the landfill with negative impacts on air quality and traffic less than half a mile from residential neighborhoods to the south is irresponsible, Bernson said.

“This is not the right place for a landfill,” said Bernson, who represents Granada Hills. “Do we want this to become the next Belmont [Learning Complex] fiasco? We do not.”

Supporters pointed to environmental impact reports, which concluded that the health of neighbors will not be harmed.

Dozens of opponents, including one dark-clad figure wearing a death mask, listened and sometimes jeered during the two-hour debate. Officials said the city needs a place to dispose of its trash, and using Sunshine Canyon will save taxpayers $8.4 million annually over alternatives, such as trucking trash to a landfill near Lancaster.

“We create trash, and the reality is it’s going to go somewhere,” said Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg. More costly alternatives would “reduce funding for everything else in the city,” she said.

The council imposed more than 250 conditions on the facility, many aimed at reducing the potential for ground-water and air pollution. The council also ordered that air quality be monitored at nearby Van Gogh Street Elementary School to determine whether the landfill is a health risk.

“This landfill has more mitigation than any landfill has had, more scrutiny than any landfill has had in this city up to this date,” said Councilman Mike Hernandez, drawing catcalls and boos from the audience.

Neighbors Plan to Sue the City

The neighboring residents now plan to sue the city, said Wayde Hunter, president of the North Valley Coalition.

Opponents said they were not surprised by the vote, noting landfill operator Browning-Ferris Industries spent nearly $350,000 during the last 18 months to lobby City Hall on the issue.

“We hoped they would have seen we are just trying to protect our children,” Hunter said afterward. “Apparently, the dollars that BFI waved at them clouded their judgment.”

BFI spokesman Arnie Berghoff said the firm will employ the most advanced environmental control techniques at the landfill. A solid lining will prevent ground-water contamination, tarps will be placed over trash at night to reduce air pollution and state-of-the-art equipment will be installed to burn off methane gas, Berghoff said.

The company is prepared for any legal challenge, and plans to begin operation in mid-2001, Berghoff said. At that time, the landfill will take in 100% of the trash collected in the city, representing a third of all refuse to be dumped at the landfill.

The city now dumps half its 3,400 tons a day in Sunshine. The rest goes to the Bradley Landfill in Sun Valley, which is to close in 2001, according to Drew Sones, a spokesman for the city Sanitation Bureau.

Sunshine Canyon was opened in 1958 and operated in the city of Los Angeles until 1991, when a zone variance expired. In 1996, Browning-Ferris began taking trash on 215 adjacent acres outside the city, in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County.

The landfill will more than double in size, from 215 to 451 acres, and will take in 55 million tons of trash in the city portion of the landfill during the next 26 years. The city permit allows up to 5,000 tons of trash to be dumped daily.

Only 194 acres of the expanded area will be used for trash disposal, with the rest designated for support facilities and open space. The council required Browning-Ferris to plant trees in an area of open space that will serve as a buffer between the landfill and homes to the south.

The council also ordered creation of a citizens advisory committee to help the city monitor the landfill’s compliance.

The vote was largely along geographic lines, with most of the council members representing parts of the Valley in opposition.

Valley Leaders Oppose Measure

In addition to Bernson, the expansion was opposed by council members Laura Chick of Tarzana, Alex Padilla of Pacoima, Joel Wachs of Studio City and Mike Feuer, whose district extends from Van Nuys to West Los Angeles.

Councilman Nate Holden was absent.

Feuer said the city has not done enough to find more rural landfills.

Wachs said the additional cost of trucking trash out of the city would be about 96 cents per household per month. The cost, Wachs said, is worth having a dump-free city.

“If you wouldn’t want a landfill next to yourself, should you put one next to someone else?” Wachs asked his colleagues.

Bernson said there is plenty of room left in the county portion of Sunshine Canyon and in other landfills as far away as San Bernardino County, which say they can dispose of the trash for less than the cost at Sunshine.

“Currently, Sunshine Canyon is only operating at between 50% to 60% capacity. Why expand it?” Bernson said, to applause. “We cannot expand Sunshine on the phony argument that landfill space is running out.”

But Bernson said his main concern is the potential negative impact on the health of his constituents. He read colleagues a letter from Danielle Wallace, a student at Van Gogh school, who said she has missed 12 days of school because she has been made sick by the landfill and suffers respiratory problems.

Parallel Drawn to Belmont Site

Valley school board member Julie Korenstein told the council she is afraid the landfill will lead to some of the same problems she predicted for the Belmont Learning Complex project downtown, which the school district may shut down because of toxic contamination of the site.

Korenstein said the lesson of other trash dumps is that “Landfills and communities and schools do not go together.”

R. Nicholas Brown, a city hearing examiner, told the council a review of a USC database on cancer cases in Southern California found “no evidence of an increased risk of cancer” between 1972 and 1992 in the area near the landfill.

The landfill will unavoidably add to air pollution, but its benefits outweigh the negative effect on the environment, Brown said.

Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, whose district includes part of the Valley, said the council has addressed many concerns about health risks.

“The landfill is there,” she said. “The question is: Can we make it . . . a better, safer, healthier operation than what is there daily now? I believe we can.”

Sunshine Canyon Dump to Expand

Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved a major expansion of Sunshine Canyon Landfill. The move more than doubles the facility’s size from 215 to 451 acres and makes it the destination of the city’s trash for the next 26 years. The expansion is planned to begin operating in mid-2001. At that time, the landfill will take in 100% of city-collected trash, which will represent a third of all refuse to be dumped at the landfill.

*

HOW THEY VOTED

The vote to expand Sunshine Canyon Landfill was 9-5.

* Voting “YES”: Council members John Ferraro, Ruth Galanter, Rudy Svorinich, Jr., Mike Hernandez, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Rita Walters, Cindy Miscikowski, Jackie Goldberg and Nick Pacheco.

* Voting “NO”: Council members Hal Bernson, Laura Chick, Mike Feuer, Alex Padilla and Joel Wachs.

* Absent: Nate Holden.