L.A. Seeks Ways to Cut Dump Use : But Council Stops Short of Agreeing to State Limits

After a seesaw two-hour debate on the city’s mounting garbage crisis, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to prepare to scale back operations at Lopez Canyon Landfill, dumping ground for two-thirds of the city’s trash.

However, the council stopped short of agreeing to voluntarily comply with state restrictions that were issued last week against the city-operated dump, deciding to wait until after an Aug. 4 Los Angeles Superior Court hearing. The state Waste Management Board order called for limits on the landfill height, size and the number of daily truckloads dumped there.

Councilman Joel Wachs, who introduced a motion to comply immediately, said the city ought to admit that it made mistakes at the Lake View Terrace dump and turn its efforts away from the courtroom and toward finding alternative trash disposal sites.

Fears Long Fight

“If we insist on staying in court, it could be years before we take care of this,” said Councilman Ernani Bernardi, who represents the East Valley district where the dump is located.

Initially, council members supported Wachs’ motion on a 12-1 vote. But most of them changed their minds, and their votes, after Deputy City Atty. Christopher M. Westhoff said they had crippled his ability to fight the state’s order.

“If the council votes to voluntarily comply, it makes my position moot,” Westhoff said.

On a 10-3 vote--with Councilman Nate Holden joining Bernardi and Wachs in dissenting--they decided to wait until Aug. 8 to reconsider Wachs’ proposal to comply with the state order.

Councilwoman Joy Picus, who opposed Wachs’ motion, said the city cannot afford to rule out any trash-dumping options before it has to. She charged that state legislators and the state waste board are “out to get L.A.”

“The real issue here is the politics of garbage,” Picus said. “We have to leave every possibility open, including Lopez Canyon.”

Instead, the council asked the city Bureau of Sanitation to investigate four contingencies that could be used if the state’s order stands:

* Negotiating with alternative disposal sites, including a BKK Corp. facility in West Covina and the Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Santa Clarita.

* Expanding the amount of city garbage allowed at Sunshine Canyon Landfill above Granada Hills.

* Speeding up implementation of the citywide recycling program, scheduled to begin in August, 1990.

* Reserving Lopez Canyon Landfill for the 3,000 tons of residential garbage thrown away daily, while locating other destinations for about 1,000 tons a day produced by the city streets and parks departments.

In a suit filed against the state waste board Monday, the city maintains that the board’s order unfairly upholds limitations included in a 1977 engineering report, incorporated into the dump operating permit a year later, but ignores a 1983 engineering report that, among other things, increased the allowable height of garbage mounds at the Lopez Canyon Landfill.

The state waste board says that 1983 report was never formally adopted, a fact that the board acknowledges it did not realize until its staff began a review of the dump’s permit earlier this year.

1978 Limits

Reinstituting the 1978 permit limits would mean cutting the landfill’s height from 1,760 feet to 1,725 feet, reducing the number of trucks that travel there daily from 500 to 400 and removing garbage from areas outside the 140-acre trash boundaries, including some dumped on seven acres of National Forest Service land.

Delwin Biagi, director of the city Bureau of Sanitation, said the lower height limits would cause Lopez Canyon to close within a year. He said sending the trash to private landfills will cost the city about $26 million a year in fees.

Neighbors of the Lopez Canyon dump who witnessed Tuesday’s council meeting were disappointed. They want to see the landfill closed.

Dennis Ghiatis, who lives in Kagel Canyon, adjacent to the dump, said the council members “missed their chance to act responsibly” when they decided against voluntary compliance with the state order.

“If these 15 gutless wonders spent as much time trying to solve the garbage crisis as they spend trying to cover their backsides . . . we wouldn’t be here today,” said Lewis Snow, vice president of the Lake View Terrace Home Owners Assn.