Judge’s Plea: Bury Us Not in Garbage : But City Wins a Round in Fight With State Over Lopez Canyon

A Superior Court judge--saying she fears that Los Angeles could be buried in garbage--issued an order Wednesday preventing the California Waste Management Board from limiting trash dumping at the Lopez Canyon Landfill for at least four weeks.

The city Bureau of Sanitation had said it would have to close the dump within days--at least temporarily--if the state were successful in imposing limits on the height of garbage mounds at the municipal landfill. The dump, in the northeastern San Fernando Valley above Lake View Terrace, takes two-thirds of the 6,000 tons of residential trash thrown away daily in Los Angeles.

Judge Dzintra I. Janavs said she granted the preliminary injunction against the state restrictions based on the strength of the city’s lawsuit against the state order, what she called the waste board’s lack of diligence in monitoring the landfill over the years and the impact that suddenly scaling back operations there could have on Los Angeles’ worsening dump space problem.

Unpleasant Choices

“It’s frightening and discouraging to think that we’re not far from the day when the balance the court will have to reach is between leaving the garbage on the streets and piling it up in a great, huge heap that will simply fall back on us and bury us,” she said.

Janavs also predicted that, based on the evidence submitted so far, she probably will rule in the city’s favor at the next court hearing, scheduled for Sept. 26.

“It does appear that the city is likely to prevail” in its suit, she said.

On July 7, the state board told the city to reduce the height of garbage mounds and the number of trucks dumping daily at Lopez Canyon. That order followed the board’s investigation into a March 8 accident in which two workers fainted after unearthing garbage that released toxic gases.

Earlier this month, the city won a temporary restraining order against those limits.

Deputy City Atty. Christopher M. Westhoff said he was elated about Janavs’ ruling Wednesday, adding that it foreshadowed a victory in September.

“Anybody who has followed this case can see the court is following me point by point,” Westhoff said.

Neighbors of the landfill and attorneys representing the state Waste Management Board said Janavs had been misled by city exaggerations of the severity of the garbage problem. They vowed to bring fresh evidence to the next hearing.

“The city is irresponsibly inflating the numbers to panic the public,” said Rob Zapple, spokesman for Communities United for Safe Trash Management.

No Immediate Harm

In the hearing, Janavs said that no harm is likely to come to surrounding neighborhoods if the landfill continues operating at current levels during the four weeks before the next hearing.

But outside the courtroom, Robert Conheim, attorney for the Waste Management Board, disagreed. He said the increasing height of the landfill causes more than a simple nuisance to those who live below the dump in Kagel Canyon.

“Each day as it goes higher, they lose minutes of sunlight. I think that is significant harm,” Conheim said.

Janavs also said she would rather see the city spend its money on exploring alternative solutions to trash disposal--such as recycling--than on sending trash destined for Lopez Canyon to other facilities.

The city had predicted that the 1,725-foot landfill height limitation in the state order would cause the dump to be declared full within days, forcing the city to spend at least $1.6 million to send the trash to other public and private landfills between now and the September hearing. Later, if the city ultimately loses the lawsuit, a new canyon area will have to be prepared for dumping.

Tale of Two Documents

Central to the dispute between the state and the city is the relative authority of two dump-related documents: a 1978 dump operation permit and a 1983 engineering report that the state required after a flood washed trash and debris down into Kagel Canyon neighborhoods.

The state maintains that the city must adhere to 1978 limits of 400 garbage trucks per day and a 1,725-foot elevation for the dirt-covered hills of garbage. The city maintains that the 1983 report increased those figures to 500 trucks a day and more than 1,740 feet.

In granting the preliminary injunction Wednesday, Janavs described the original permit as “vague.” She said the state had erred by not requiring a permit review every five years, as mandated by state waste laws, and she said changes alluded to in the 1983 report should have prompted that review.

“It appears the state had approved and acquiesced in this use of Lopez Canyon,” she said.