Water Agencies Reject Azusa Landfill Offer

Two local water agencies have rejected the offer of Azusa landfill owners, who last week proposed spending up to $20 million to build as many as three water treatment plants to help clean polluted water in the San Gabriel Valley.

Azusa Land Reclamation Co. made the offer as an attempt to gain support for expansion of its landfill, the county’s least active dump. Its capacity would quadruple to 6,000 tons of trash daily if it were expanded.

But officials of the Metropolitan Water District and the Main San Gabriel Valley Watermaster, in letters dated Wednesday, told the landfill operator that the installation of treatment plants would not allay fears about water pollution that could result from landfill expansion.

“We have given serious consideration . . . (but) Your proposed trade asks too much and gives very little” read the letter signed by Carl Boronkay, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District.

The letter from the chairman of the watermaster panel, Linn Magoffin, stated, “While your proposal may have some superficial appeal, it really ducks rather than meets the issues.”

The company had proposed building an extensive lining and drainage system to prevent pollution of the underground water supply. But local and state water officials had said that all dumps leak, regardless of how elaborate the prevention system is.

The treatment plant proposal was made last week by William D. Ruckelshaus, a former director of the Environmental Protection Agency who is chairman of the board of Browning-Ferris Industries, parent company of Azusa Land Reclamation.

Under the proposal, one of the treatment plants would be installed at the landfill, which serves 13 cities. Two other plants would be located, according to a company spokesman, at sites that would best ensure cleanup of the worst pollution. The critical pollution problem in the valley resulted from degreasing solvents that industries released into the water table.

Next Tuesday in Sacramento, the State Water Resources Control Board is scheduled to hold a hearing on possible expansion of the dump, which covers 80 acres of a 302-acre rock quarry.

Last year, on a 4-3 vote, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board had approved plans for the landfill expansion. Local and regional water officials, who have ardently opposed the expansion, appealed that decision to the state board.