Anti-Landfill Drive Starts Fast : Santa Clarita Group Collects 250 Petition Signatures

A Santa Clarita citizens group gathered more than 250 signatures in 1 1/2 hours Saturday in launching a petition drive against a proposed landfill in Elsmere Canyon.

“We’re really excited about the response,” said Marsha McLean, co-chairwoman of the Elsmere Canyon Preservation Committee. “There were lots of people coming up to our tables saying ‘Where do we sign?’ We proved to ourselves that we can just sit there and get great results.”

Members of the group gathered the signatures at a shopping center at Soledad Canyon and Whites Canyon roads.

McLean said the group will continue to gather signatures until Sept. 26, when it plans to present petitions to the Santa Clarita City Council.

“Landfills are not good in populated areas,” said McLean, who has lived near Elsmere Canyon for 16 years. “We should be looking at alternatives that would keep residential communities from being subjected to this kind of pollution.”

BKK Corp. is preparing an environmental impact report on the proposed dump site in Elsmere Canyon, about two miles northeast of the interchange of the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways. BKK hopes to open the landfill by 1991.

The firm is vying with the city of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County to win approval to establish the landfill, which has a potential life span of 50 years. Los Angeles officials have said the site could help solve the area’s trash crisis.

An environmental impact report on a proposed expansion of the nearby Sunshine Canyon Landfill declared Elsmere a poor choice for a dump. The report said soil permeability tests showed that the canyon’s floor is not suitable for a dump and would require a liner.

The report added that nearby faults could produce earthquakes at the location. The report said there may be archeological sites and historic buildings on the property.

But BKK President Kenneth Kazarian expressed confidence that new geological and environmental studies will conclude that Elsmere is a suitable landfill site.

The environmental impact report is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Council members have said they will take no formal position on the landfill until the report is completed. But Mayor Jan Heidt said she opposes the dump.

“No landfills are environmentally sound,” she said. “But there’s only one way to really determine if it’s right and that’s by waiting for the EIR. But given the political climate and the need for landfills, it’s hard to know what’s going to happen.”