A Dangerous Decision

Nothing is forever, noted former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William D. Ruckelshaus, but he contended that his company’s new Azusa landfill would be adequately lined to protect a critical underground water supply in the San Gabriel Valley. Water officials, supported by EPA findings, contend that all liners ultimately fail and that leakage from the trash will seep into the water supply of 1 million area residents.

The aquifer would last virtually forever, though, if it had adequate protection against contamination and were properly recharged. But Ruckelshaus’ name and the lobbying clout of his company, Browning-Ferris Industries, carried the day with the state Water Resources Control Board. The board reversed itself Tuesday and voted 3-2 to approve a 4,500-ton-a-day expansion of the BFI landfill near the intersection of the 210 and 605 freeways in Azusa and Irwindale. The board earlier rejected the project 3-1, but urged BFI and opponents, including the San Gabriel Water Master and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, to try to work out a compromise.

The board accepted Ruckelshaus’ pledge of $20 million to build water-treatment plants in the area to clean up present contamination from other sources and any pollution that may occur from the landfill. The plants will not prevent the landfill from leaking, and the decision ignores state laws that seek to restrict garbage disposal in the area. The board should reconsider this bad decision. If it will not, opponents should explore the prospects of winning reversal in the courts.