Lopez Canyon to Stay Open, State Rules After Tests

The state will not close Los Angeles’ only public trash dump because only low levels of toxic substances were found during air and underground gas tests, a spokesman for the California Waste Management Board said Monday.

“The results came in and they showed there’s nothing to worry about at all,” spokesman Chris Peck said.

Peck, however, defended the state board’s rder on Thursday to close Lopez Canyon Landfill until testing was completed. The order came after the hospitalization of two city sanitation workers who inhaled fumes at the dump. When the city and county balked at the order, state officials flew in for a meeting Friday, after which they decided to wait for the test results.

“When it comes down to public health and safety, the board would much rather be accused of overreacting than of not acting soon enough,” Peck said.

Gets Half of City’s Trash

Lopez Canyon Landfill receives more than half of the estimated 6,000 to 7,000 tons of household trash produced daily in the city of Los Angeles. The rest goes to two private landfills and to one operated under a county contract.

Test results, released Monday, “showed constituents that are typical of landfill gas, in some cases particularly odorous landfill gases . . . but no immediate hazard to anyone in the neighborhood,” said Carol Coy, senior enforcement officer with the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

However, the district will conduct round-the-clock air sampling later this week in the residential areas of Lake View Terrace and Kagel Canyon because of the continuing mystery over what sickened the sanitation workers.

Two workers fainted and several others complained of nausea and headaches after digging into 1982-vintage trash while excavating for a road March 8. One of the workers was hospitalized for 11 days.

Because the city waited several days before notifying the district and because gas dissipates quickly, Coy said it cannot be said for certain what made the workers ill.

But investigators believe that the cause may have been hydrogen sulfide gas--a common product of decaying manure--found at levels of 16 parts per million in some of the seven tests for underground gases, Coy said.

Levels of 10 to 16 p.p.m. are common at Los Angeles landfills, Coy said. There is no statewide health limit set for hydrogen sulfide gas because research on the chemical is incomplete, she said. But in enclosed industrial settings, workers must wear a respirator when levels are at 10 p.p.m., Coy said.

Three air samples taken Thursday did not identify gas or fumes at unhealthful levels, she said.

Road Work Stops

Excavation for the landfill road is at a standstill because of the accident, said Michael Miller, assistant director of the city Bureau of Sanitation. And the city must obtain a permit from the district before work can resume.

On Wednesday, the district cited the landfill for proceeding without the permit. Such a permit requires testing of ground gases, Coy said. Other excavation on the site, where a district-ordered gas extraction system must be installed by July, has also halted while a landfill consultant reviews dump operations, Miller said.

“We want to assure ourselves that nothing like this ever happens again,” he said.

Landfill opponents who live near Lopez Canyon were pleased with news of neighborhood air sampling but unhappy that the state decided not to close the dump.

“I’m terribly disappointed,” said Rob Zapple, a member of the Kagel Canyon Civic Assn. “Why don’t they shut it down now and finish the gas recovery system?”