Study of Landfills in His District : Supervisors Refuse to Aid Antonovich in Dump Flap

Mike Antonovich, facing a potentially tough reelection campaign, was turned down by his colleagues on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday when he asked them to defuse a touchy political issue.

Over Antonovich’s objections, the supervisors voted 4-1 to finance a study of opening new landfill dumps in his district, mostly in the far northern San Fernando Valley, and the expansion of others, including the Sunshine Canyon Landfill, also in his district.

Antonovich had asked specifically for the Sunshine site to be deleted from the study.

Director of Public Works T. A. Tidemanson said the vote was significant because it will provide a new study of controversial sites and firmly commits Los Angeles County to finding enough landfills to provide dumping capacity for the next 50 years.

But the vote went against the expressed wishes of many Antonovich constituents. Last October, more than 300 Granada Hills residents urged the supervisor to block expansion of the Sunshine site, with one of their leaders, Carol Albright of the North Valley Coalition, warning that an enlarged dump could damage the health of neighboring residents.

Issues Cited

In opposing inclusion of Sunshine in the study, Antonovich said, “I do not believe Sunshine should be endorsed unless the issues raised by the community are resolved.”

But that made little impression on the other supervisors present for the vote Tuesday--including Antonovich’s two conservative colleagues, Pete Schabarum and Deane Dana, as well as liberals Kenneth Hahn and Ed Edelman.

“Ill advised” is how Schabarum termed Antonovich’s request. Declaring that the Sunshine area has plenty of capacity left, the supervisor said Antonovich was guilty of “poor judgment.”

Edelman took up the attack from the other side of the supervisorial dais. “We need every site we can get,” he said.

The exchange pinpointed a political dilemma for Antonovich, a two-term supervisor who faces seven challengers, including former Supervisor Baxter Ward. The others are Martin A. C. Enriquez-Marquez, a Pasadena educator; Jules Kimmett, a janitor; Los Angeles City Fire Capt. Donald W. Wallace; Sally Chase Clark, a Santa Clarita community activist; Jose P. Galvan, a desk-top publisher, and Peter O’Neil, a broadcast executive.

On one hand, Antonovich confronts rebellious homeowners in a half-ring of land, much of it undeveloped, stretching from Calabasas in the Santa Monica Mountains to Palmdale in the desert. Over the past few years, they have gathered in grass-roots organizations protesting growth and the accompanying traffic, smog and land fill garbage dumps.

On the other, he is a strong supporter of major land developers and of growth, backing them philosophically and accepting large campaign contributions from them. In his previous races, that has not been an issue. But since his overwhelming reelection victory four years ago, the slow-growth movement has gained in intensity, resulting in the approval of development limit measures in Los Angeles and in smaller cities, the defeat of a powerful Los Angeles city councilwoman, Pat Russell, and the formation of small cities, such as Santa Clarita, dedicated to growth control.

When asked by constituents to take a stand on Sunshine last October, Antonovich declined, although he said that the city of Los Angeles, which uses the dump, must find more dump space within its city limits. The proposed expansion of Sunshine, now occupying 300 acres within the city, would take 700 acres of unincorporated land under county jurisdiction.

Tuesday, however, he strongly opposed including Sunshine in the scope of study. “It is premature for the board to act before an environmental impact report is in,” he said.

Needs by 1992 Cited

More persuasive to the board was a report by public works chief Tidemanson. The report, which was based on information by city and county officials, said, “By 1992, 6,400 tons per day of waste will have no place for disposal unless new facilities are sited or existing landfills are expanded.”

While Tidemanson said other methods of garbage disposal, such as recycling, could reduce the county waste disposal load by between 10% and 27%, the supervisors must pick out new waste disposal sites.

Elsmere Canyon, between Los Angeles and Santa Clarita near the intersection of the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways, has also been the subject of heavy argument. The canyon and surrounding land are to be developed into a dump by the county and the city of Los Angeles, but Santa Clarita council members have expressed concern that the facility would pollute underground water supplies.

In addition to mentioning Sunshine for study of expansion and Elsmere for development, Tidemanson listed these potential new canyon sites, all previously reported, as targets for study: Blind Canyon, Towlsey Canyon and Toyon II, all in the far northern San Fernando Valley, and Rustic-Sullivan Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains.