Local News in Brief : Landfill Expansion Halted

Fears of toxic contamination seeping into the San Gabriel Valley’s drinking water supply have prompted a regional water board to stop the expansion of one of the area’s last operating landfills.

Despite a series of proposed safeguards to prevent leakage of toxic liquids from the Azusa Western landfill, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board decided expansion would gamble with the safety of the area’s drinking water.

“Everything comes back to the fact that it poses an unacceptable risk to water quality in the basin,” board member Dan W. Walker said before the decision.

Azusa Western is one of five remaining operating landfills in the San Gabriel Valley, and its officials have said that, without expansion, it will reach capacity in less than a year, forcing its closure. Landfill officials had proposed construction of a foot-thick clay liner beneath the dump and the payment of $400,000 a year into a trust fund to finance solutions for any future ground water problems.