Landfills

As one who has resided for more than 26 years near a landfill, I feel very qualified to respond to Charles W. Carry’s letter (Jan. 5), “Solving the Trash Crisis.” I live near Operating Industries’ landfill in Monterey Park, and in January 1984, it was ranked 16th out of 93 on the state Superfund list as one of the most hazardous toxic sites in California.

Mr. Carry, when you address a landfill as a nuisance, I want to vomit. Let’s be candid. There is no such thing as a sanitary landfill. They are dumps that spew toxic, cancer-causing chemicals into the air, because there is very little or no control of what goes into them. They make rotten neighbors and do not belong anywhere near a residential area.

We Montebello and Monterey Park residents have our lungs filled with vinyl chloride, a cancer-causing agent, and other toxic chemicals that emanate from this site. Our children attended school 1,000 feet from this dump and developed cancer, heart disease, arthritis, severe respiratory problems, allergies and every degenerative disease known to man, and every word of the above is documented.

Carry is so concerned about the costs of trash fees escalating. Where are his concerns about our doctor bills and the traumas these terrible illnesses cause? One victim’s, age 33, cancer bills are more than $500,000 and still growing.

Carry refers to landfills as good actors and bad actors. Yuk! Tragedies from dumps developed because not a single regulatory agency was doing its job properly. For years they obviously didn’t monitor these dumps and allowed operators to commit gross violations and get away with it. Residents living near these sites are now the victims suffering health problems and devaluation of our property values.

PHYLLIS RABINS

Monterey Park