Crowd Jeers, Boos : Picus Supports Landfill Expansion

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus has announced that she supports enlarging the Lopez Canyon Landfill, where two workers fainted from fumes earlier this month.

“I favor expanding Lopez Canyon and developing other landfills,” Picus told about 70 people Thursday night at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys.

Existing landfill space will be used up in 1992, according to the city’s Bureau of Sanitation. City officials have scheduled eight community meetings across Los Angeles, including the one at Birmingham, for residents to voice concerns about the options being explored on the future of garbage disposal in Los Angeles.

Proposals presented Thursday include expanding the Lopez Canyon dump, developing new landfills, converting garbage into electricity with waste-to-energy plants and instituting a citywide recycling program.

Mention of the Lopez Canyon expansion met with boos and jeers from many audience members who live near the dump and worry that the site may pose health hazards. Those concerns were fueled when two workers fainted on the job March 8. If tests determine that toxic fumes were responsible for their illness, state officials may close the dump.

Saying that landfills cause air pollution, Wade Hunter, a Lake View Terrace resident and member of the North Valley Coalition, said the city should not expand or develop more landfills until a mandatory, citywide recycling program is instituted.

But Picus said such a program would only delay--not prevent--the city from running out of space to bury garbage.

“Lopez Canyon is the only place we have for our trash. Any of the other options are long term,” Picus said. She added that the Planning Department “screwed up” in allowing recent residential developments in the area.

Officials Criticized

During the nearly two hours of public comment at the meeting, environmentalists and slow-growth advocates said permitting the Lake View Terrace projects was not the city’s only mistake regarding the garbage problem. They criticized city officials for allowing massive development without establishing adequate programs to recycle trash.

“As long as we allow continued unrestrained growth, the city is going to dig itself deeper and deeper into the trash problem,” said Gerald Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino.

“Before any project goes in, what has to be determined is where is the trash going to go,” said Susan Tansky of Studio City, a member of the Coalition Against Destruction of Residential Environments.

Picus, however, said she does not believe that the city should stop issuing building permits because it is running out of landfill space. “If you own land, there is a right to develop it,” she said.

She added that people will continue to flock to Los Angeles and that the city must have housing for them.

“I haven’t figured out how you can lock a gate to the city of Los Angeles and tell people they can’t come here anymore. Then you will have a deteriorating city,” she said.

Bob Carcia of Stop the Overdevelopment Process, a North Hollywood group, suggested that the city “require all new commercial development to implement total recycling before issuing a building permit.”

Picus said she would support such a recycling ordinance.