Council Again Rejects Limits on Lopez Dump : Bernardi, Wachs Apply Pressure in Hope of Compromise

Los Angeles City Council members stood firm Wednesday in their fight to keep Lopez Canyon Landfill open, refusing a request by two members who want the city to obey state orders that sanitation officials say would shut down the city’s only landfill within days.

It was the second time in three weeks that the council has scuttled requests by Councilmen Joel Wachs and Ernani Bernardi to comply voluntarily with tough state restrictions that would reduce the amount of garbage trucked to the Lake View Terrace landfill and severely limit the area where trash can be dumped.

The council instead voted 12 to 3 Wednesday to send the issue to the council’s new Environmental Quality and Waste Management Committee, headed by Councilman Marvin Braude, who promised to return in 60 days with a report on how the city should be solving its trash crisis.

Bernardi and Wachs, who represent Lake View Terrace residents living near the dump, said they did not expect the council to approve their request.

Hopes for Compromise

“But someone has got to be there pushing the question because you need it to get to a compromise in the end,” Wachs said afterward.

“I don’t consider this a defeat,” Bernardi said. “This means that this issue will get a quick hearing and our overall city trash policies are going to be reviewed.”

Los Angeles officials say that if the city complied with state orders, the landfill dumping area would fill in days, leaving Los Angeles without a place to put two-thirds of its household garbage. It would cost the city $26 million a year to haul the garbage to private landfills, city sanitation officials said.

Operations at Lopez Canyon have come under fire in the past three months after the California Solid Waste Mangement Board accused the city of violating conditions of its 1977 permit. The state charged that the city is dumping too much garbage and spreading it over too wide an area and ordered officials to abide by tougher 1977 limits.

2 Lawsuits

The city has taken the state to court twice on the issue, fighting both the validity of the 1977 permit and the recent state orders to follow it. Court hearings are scheduled for Aug. 24 and Sept. 26.

During council debate, several members, including Wachs and Bernardi, said Lopez Canyon was an example of poor planning that unfairly dumps the bulk of the city’s trash in one community.

Decisions by Mayor Tom Bradley and the City Council that led to the crisis include closure of Mission Canyon landfill on the Westside in 1981 and the rejection of a plan in 1987 to build a trash incinerator in South-Central Los Angeles. The city also has moved slowly in creating a recycling program.

“We didn’t have the guts to go through with these things,” said Councilwoman Joy Picus. “Lopez Canyon is garbage’s last stand. The only guarantee we have is Lopez.”

Expansion Plans

Despite troubles with the dump’s operations, the city is moving forward with plans to expand the landfill, extending its life to the year 2005. A 600-page environmental impact report on the plan was released Tuesday. An Aug. 28 hearing is scheduled in City Hall.

Bernardi introduced a motion Wednesday to delay the hearing, arguing that there was not sufficient time for residents to review the thick report. The council will vote on the request within a week.