Firm drops bid to expand its dump in Sun Valley

The company that operates the last active garbage dump in the city of Los Angeles has abandoned efforts to expand its San Fernando Valley landfill, which is scheduled to close next spring.

For four years, Waste Management had sought a 43-foot height extension for the Bradley Landfill in Sun Valley. But with the closing date fast approaching and Councilman Tony Cardenas recently announcing his opposition to expansion, company officials decided to withdraw the application, said spokeswoman Katherine Cole.

“I cannot and will not support the granting of the height extension to the Bradley Landfill,” Cardenas wrote in his Nov. 17 letter. “If recycling is the future, then we must focus our efforts on mitigating negative impacts to our community, while protecting our environment.”

Instead, Waste Management will concentrate on converting a portion of the 209-acre property into a transfer and recycling center, Cole said.

“By getting the landfill off the table, we can focus on the future use of this facility,” she said.

Those plans entail building a 100,000-square-foot, fully enclosed center, with grading and landscaping, where recycled materials will be sorted and garbage trucks will transfer their trash to semitrucks for transport to outlying landfills.

For his part, Cardenas said Friday that he was pleased with the company’s decision, adding that for too long the industrial northeast Valley has been considered a dumping ground for other areas of the city.

Sun Valley is home to more than 30 landfills and quarries that are either in use or have been closed and topped off, he said. Many of the pits were dug to provide sand and gravel to build Los Angeles when the Valley was an undeveloped agricultural area.

Members of the Bradley Landfill Advisory Committee, a group that advises Cardenas, said they were pleased with the decision. “They were going to close it down in April anyway, so to me it’s a moot point,” said Sun Valley resident Vicki Birch. “Let’s get moving with the transfer station. We need to get on with that and keep jobs in Sun Valley.”

From 250 to 300 people work at the landfill, and company officials have said most of those jobs will be transferred to the new center, if it is built.

“It’s a business decision on their part,” said Carol Silver, who owns a printing business in Sun Valley. “They were always going to close in April. Yes, they wanted the landfill increased four-plus years ago, but it took forever to get their [environmental impact report], and then it took forever for the city to do their thing. It just took too long.”

Cardenas said he would not sign off on the recycling and transfer center until the community was satisfied that a number of concerns had been addressed, including controlling air pollution, odor and truck traffic.

“If we are to consider this, it has to be the cleanest, most environmentally advanced center, using the best technology possible,” he said. “Sun Valley has been putting up with odor from open-air facilities for far too long.”

amanda.covarrubias

@latimes.com