Officials Criticize Lopez Canyon Impact Report

Two Los Angeles city councilmen and a state assemblyman on Monday night blasted an environmental impact report supporting plans to expand the Lopez Canyon Landfill as biased, misleading and inadequate.

Councilmen Ernarni Bernardi and Joel Wachs said the environmental impact report did not fully discuss the potential hazards the expansion would pose for people living near the dump above Lake View Terrace. They said the report--prepared for the city Bureau of Sanitation by a consultant--failed to explore alternatives, such as recycling, that would lessen the city’s reliance on landfills to dispose of trash.

“It is a report for people who have made their mind up already,” Wachs said.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) said city sanitation officials should look elsewhere in Los Angeles for solutions to the city’s mounting garbage crisis. “We have done more than our fair share in the northeast Valley for the city of Los Angeles,” Katz said. “We will fight it every step of the way.”

Katz, Bernardi and Wachs testified before representatives of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works and Bureau of Sanitation at a hearing attended by about 70 people at the Lake View Terrace Recreation Center.

The Board of Public Works will hold another hearing on the report Friday. If the proposal clears the board, it still must be approved by the city Planning Commission and City Council.

The 600-page report responds to more than 1,400 comments from citizens and public agencies on the $16-million expansion plan. Overall, the report says, the expansion would not harm residents living near the dump.

The city’s permits to operate Lopez Canyon, which receives two-thirds of all residential waste in Los Angeles, expire in 1992. City sanitation officials hope to secure new permits and extend the life of the landfill to 2002.

This summer, state officials ordered the city to curtail operations at Lopez Canyon, saying sanitation officials violated permits by dumping too much trash each day. Los Angeles officials said they would have to close the landfill within days if they complied with the order from the California Waste Management Board.