$2.1 Million in Dump Fees Voted to Ease Lopez Canyon

A Los Angeles City Council committee on Tuesday approved paying $2.1 million to dump debris from city streets and parks into private and public landfills around the county for the next few months.

The action by the Budget and Finance Committee was in response to a state order issued this summer to reduce to 400 the number of trucks dumping daily at the city-operated Lopez Canyon Landfill, in the northeast San Fernando Valley.

The committee’s action still must be approved by the full City Council.

Although the city challenged the California Waste Management Board order in Superior Court and won a temporary restraining order, city Bureau of Sanitation officials said Tuesday that the city attorney recommended that they voluntarily comply with the truck limit, which could help to demonstrate good faith in future state and court hearings on the issue.

The $2.1 million would cover dumping fees for smaller trucks from the Bureau of Street Maintenance and the Department of Recreation and Parks, reserving Lopez Canyon for larger, fully loaded trucks. The city plans to prepare a new area of Lopez Canyon for dumping and will attempt to persuade the state to increase the 400-truck limit later this year.

If approved by the council, the money will be transferred from city Bureau of Sanitation coffers into budgets for the streets and parks departments. The money will come from the $18 million the bureau has set aside for private dumping fees.

The city is not voluntarily complying with the other limits set down in the state order--including a reduction in the dump’s height. The City Council is scheduled to consider voluntarily complying with all the limits on Oct. 27.