300 Urge Burial of Sunshine Dump Plan

More than 300 Granada Hills residents Wednesday night urged Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich to block the expansion of the Sunshine Canyon Landfill into county territory.

The expansion, proposed by Browning Ferris Industries, a Houston-based waste handler, would bring more garbage to the landfill. It could be hazardous to the health of nearby residents, said Carol Albright, a leader of the North Valley Coalition homeowners group.

Although Antonovich did not take a position on the expansion, he told the group that dump sites must be found within the City of Los Angeles. He noted that cities in the county, especially in the San Gabriel Valley, are closing their dumps to city trash.

On Tuesday, the City of Glendale closed the Scholl Canyon dump to trash from Los Angeles.

The Sunshine Canyon landfill covers 300 acres within Los Angeles and is almost full. The expansion calls for a dumping-area increase of 700 acres, said Greig Smith, chief deputy to Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson.

County officials are awaiting an environmental impact report on the expansion and expect to hold a public hearing on the report next year, said John R. Schwarze, a zoning administrator with the county Department of Regional Planning.

Albright illustrated her arguments with a bunch of black, helium-filled balloons--which she said represented the amount of benzene gas emitted by decomposing trash.