Council Studies Pact to Develop Regional Dump at Elsmere Site

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday directed its staff to study a proposed agreement with the county to develop Elsmere Canyon in the Santa Clarita Valley as a 1,500-acre regional dump.

The agreement, which took five months to negotiate, was hailed as a “historic breakthrough” by Deputy Mayor Mike Gage. County spokesmen predict that the canyon will solve the region’s trash crunch for decades.

Before the tentative agreement arrived at City Hall, several council members expressed doubt about how committed county supervisors were to the pact.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky cited news reports that three of the five supervisors had voted for the pact in closed session late Tuesday, noting that under state law, action by a legislative body is not binding unless placed on an agenda in advance and voted on in public session.

But council president John Ferraro said the three--Mike Antonovich, Deane Dana and Edmund D. Edelman--had signed a letter Wednesday affirming their support.

Gage said he thought the matter had been handled in closed session “only because they wanted to move it along and there wasn’t time to put it on their agenda.”

He emphasized that the pact is only a broad outline of a complex agreement that still must be put in legal form.

Gage predicted that the agreement would gain wide support on the council once members examine it.

The agreement calls on the city and county to form a joint powers authority to develop and operate the 190-million-ton capacity landfill by selling $195 million in revenue bonds, to be repaid by fees charged for dumping at the site.

Another provision of the agreement would bind the city of Los Angeles to appease the nearby city of Santa Clarita by deeding it part of the Saugus Rehabilitation Center. Santa Clarita officials, who oppose using Elsmere as a dump, want the abandoned drunk farm for a city hall and a park.

In return for not opposing the new landfill, which is in an unincorporated area a mile and a half from its boundary, Santa Clarita also would receive a fee for each ton of refuse in an amount to be determined by city and county negotiators.

Most of the proposed landfill must be acquired from the U.S. Forest Service, which owns the canyon as part of the Angeles National Forest. A separate tentative agreement has been reached between the county and BKK Corp., a big waste disposal firm that got to Elsmere first. The county has offered to pay BKK $125 million to relinquish its interests at Elsmere, including at least 500 acres of land, options on other holdings and an agreement in principle with the Forest Service to acquire its lands for the dump.

The preliminary deal with the Forest Service calls for it to give up the land in return for other private holdings within the Angeles National Forest that would be purchased and transferred to the agency.