L.A. Officials Rush Plan for Expansion of Lopez Landfill : Critic Bernardi Pushes for Delay of 1st Public Hearing

Los Angeles sanitation officials are moving swiftly to obtain city approval and funding to expand Lopez Canyon Landfill despite state attempts to severely reduce dumping at the site.

The city released a final environmental impact report Tuesday on the expansion, which would extend the life of the Lake View Terrace landfill to the year 2005 and increase dumping by 3,200 tons a day--to 7,200 tons. It was accompanied by an accelerated schedule to move the expansion proposal to the Board of Public Works, the Planning Commission and the City Council in less than three months.

The $16-million expansion calls for bulldozing 6 million cubic yards of dirt and grading a mountain ridge to make room for more garbage at Lopez, which receives two-thirds of the city’s trash.

The first public hearing on the final document is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Aug. 28 at City Hall before the Board of Public Works.

Hearing Date Opposed

East Valley Councilman Ernani Bernardi, who represents the area, said the hearing date would come too soon to allow enough time for public review. He said he will seek to have the hearing delayed and held in the Valley at night to make it easier for working residents to attend.

Sanitation officials are pushing for City Council approval of the plan by Nov. 6 so the expansion plans can become part of a new operating permit application to the California Waste Management Board due in late November.

“We are in a footrace,” said Mal Toy, city director of solid waste management.

The 600-page report responds to over 1,400 questions and comments from citizens and public agencies that reviewed a preliminary report last winter. The report generally upholds the findings in the draft, which stated that the expansion would not significantly harm nearby residents.

Noise from increased garbage truck traffic and aesthetic changes in the landscape could not be reduced to minor levels, the report said. It concludes that “it is not possible to determine” whether methane gas emissions could be reduced to insignificant levels.

The report goes on to address community concerns that earthquakes could cause landslides and damage a protective liner inside the dump. Cracks would emerge but “slope failure is not anticipated” in the event of an earthquake equal to the magnitude of the 1971 Sylmar quake because buried trash “acts like a sponge, absorbing seismic forces,” the report stated.

Restrictions Proposed

The report also includes stipulations to reduce dust and noise generated during excavation of the new site. These include using water tankers to spray roads, restricting work to the hours of 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and stopping work during windy weather.

After the draft environmental report was released, the city scrapped its proposal to bury sewage sludge, a toxic substance, at the site.

While the expansion proposal goes forward, the existing Lopez operating permit remains the focus of two lawsuits.

State solid waste officials have charged that the city is in violation of its 1977 operating permit because it is dumping too much garbage and spreading it over too wide an area. The state ordered the city last week to abide by strict dumping limits in that permit, a mandate that city officials say would close the dump in a few days.

The city maintains that it is legally operating within more generous dumping guidelines set forth in a 1983 report it submitted to the state amending its permit. In separate court actions, the city is fighting the validity of the conditions in the 1977 permit and the recent state orders to obey them.

Further complicating the permit issue is Los Angeles County, which enforces state landfill laws at Lopez Canyon. The county refused to honor the state’s request to enforce restrictions at Lopez. Instead the county issued more lenient orders that allow the city to operate under the 1983 guidelines until the new permit application is submitted.

If the expansion plans and funding are approved by the City Council and Mayor Tom Bradley, the city is free to begin the massive excavations to prepare the dump for more trash, a project that sanitation official hope to begin in January, 1990.

However, the expanded dump will not be able to open until the state approves a new permit.

Chris Peck, spokesman for the California Waste Management Board, said it is unclear how state concerns about operations at Lopez will affect the new permit application.

“The city has every right to proceed with a new operating permit,” Peck said. Any new application would be scrutinized because the “past operations show that they have not done as well as they should.”