Santa Clarita Residents Criticize Elsmere Dump : Landfill: A public forum attracts more than 200 people. The mayor vows to fight the Los Angeles city-county plan.

At a public forum attended by more than 200 people Wednesday night, the Santa Clarita City Council heard overwhelming opposition to plans to open a garbage dump outside the city in Elsmere Canyon.

One after another, residents called on the council to oppose the dump, saying they feared the landfill would pollute the city’s water supply. “This whole area could be contaminated,” said Gil Callowhill, a director of the Castaic Lake Water Agency.

The council took no vote Wednesday, but Mayor Jo Anne Darcy said, “We will do everything we can possible, legally and otherwise, to fight this landfill.”

The city and county of Los Angeles last month reached a tentative agreement to open a landfill in Elsmere Canyon, possibly as soon as 1995. An environmental impact report on the project is expected sometime this spring.

The canyon is about two miles northeast of the interchange of the Antelope Valley and Golden State freeways, outside the Santa Clarita city limits.

The city has no authority over the area and cannot directly block the city and county decision. But it could create legal obstacles to opening the dump by challenging its environmental impact in court.

Resident Karen Pearson-Hall said Santa Clarita could not trust Los Angeles to protect the citizens of Santa Clarita. “I don’t think we can count on them to treat us with the respect we need,” she said.

The forum was held to hear public comment on draft resolutions spelling out two possible courses of action for the Santa Clarita City Council.

The first resolution says Santa Clarita will oppose a dump in Elsmere Canyon under any circumstances.

The second resolution says Santa Clarita would not resist the landfill if it is environmentally sound and the city and county of Los Angeles meet a list of 18 demands, including requests for land, money and extra environmental safeguards to protect Santa Clarita’s water supply.

Among other things, the resolution asks that the city of Los Angeles promise to supply Santa Clarita with water in case the dump pollutes the new city’s wells. The resolution also demands that Los Angeles give Santa Clarita the defunct Saugus Rehabilitation Center, a 583-acre site owned by Los Angeles but located inside Santa Clarita.

Under the resolution Santa Clarita would also request a share of the dump’s profits, about $1 million a year.

City officials said it could take the council several weeks to decide between the two approaches.

Before taking public testimony, two city employees detailed the competing resolutions, trying to gauge support for each measure. Asst. City Manager Ken Pulskamp endorsed the second resolution, saying the city should at least receive concessions if it is unable to fight the powerful forces that endorse the dump.

“Ladies and gentlemen, no one wants a dump, no one. But let’s not be foolhardy,” Pulskamp said.

The audience was not persuaded, and applauded each speaker who denounced the landfill.

Pearson-Hall said Councilwoman Jan Heidt asked her earlier Wednesday whether she would be willing to see Santa Clarita spend $1 million of taxpayers’ money to fight the Elsmere dump. Pearson-Hall turned to the audience and asked the same question.

“Yes!” several people said. Others applauded.

“I said the same thing,” Pearson-Hall said. “Really, what price cancer?”