Advertisement

Suit Will Seek to Block Expansion of Landfill

Share

Local and regional water suppliers, along with the Environmental Defense Fund, announced that they will file suit today in Los Angeles County Superior Court to try to block the controversial expansion of an Azusa landfill that sits atop the ground water supply for the San Gabriel Valley.

A draft of the suit, released Tuesday by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, argues that the expansion poses “a serious, permanent and increasing threat” to ground water in Los Angeles County.

The Metropolitan Water District and the Environmental Defense Fund have joined water officials in the San Gabriel Valley to fight the expansion, approved last month by the five-member State Water Resources Control Board. The expansion was requested by Browning-Ferris Industries Inc., which operates the dump.

Advertisement

In exchange for the expansion, BFI Chairman William Ruckelshaus, former head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency--promised the firm would spend $20.5 million to attack water pollution in the region. As a result of underground pollutants, the San Gabriel Valley water basin, which supplies 1 million consumers, suffers from one of the nation’s worst water pollution problems.

Advertisement