Sheriff’s Dept. Fights AQMD Citation on Jail Landfill : Environment: Regulators insist methane should be siphoned off at a Castaic facility. It is unclear whether a health hazard exists.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is fighting an order by air-quality officials who want the department to install a retrieval system to siphon off methane gas rising from a landfill at the County Jail in Castaic.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) issued the department a notice of violation Jan. 24 because methane gas levels at the dump were four to six times above the state safety standard, David Rutherford, an AQMD spokesman, said Monday.

Despite the high readings, it is unclear whether a health risk exists, said Mohsen Nazemi, a supervising engineer with the AQMD.

The AQMD ordered the department to install a system of wells and flares that would collect and burn off the gas created by decomposing garbage. Such systems are standard requirements at landfills, Rutherford said.

But Capt. Tom Hehir said the sheriff’s department will ask an AQMD review board to grant a variance allowing the dump at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho to operate without the retrieval system.

The department could submit its request as early as next week, he said. The sheriff’s department is taking its case to a hearing board because AQMD engineers refused last week to let the dump operate without a retrieval system.

Hehir said the sheriff’s department opposes the retrieval system because consultants retained by the department doubt that there is enough methane to collect at the dump. Cost is a concern as well. The consultants estimate that a gas-collection system could cost between $500,000 and $1 million, he said.

According to Hehir, recent studies found an average of only 9 parts per million of methane, well below the standard of 50 p.p.m.

However, the AQMD’s order was based on 1988 tests that found averages as high as 324 p.p.m. of methane, Rutherford said.

The low readings provided by the sheriff’s department did not impress AQMD engineers. “We were not convinced” that a retrieval system is not needed, Rutherford said.

The landfill, about 10 years old and located in a remote portion of the jail site, covers 37 acres but could be expanded to 54 acres, Hehir said. It accepts 22 tons of refuse from the jail each day, roughly enough to fill four dump trucks.

Civilian employees haul and dump the garbage, although inmates are occasionally allowed to work in the landfill, Hehir said. He said the jail has not recorded any accidents or health problems caused by methane.

The sheriff’s department originally asked for an exemption allowing it to operate without the retrieval system last July. The request was denied, and last August the county was ordered to install the system.

When the department failed to comply with the order, the AQMD issued the notice of violation in January. Hehir said that he only learned in January that the request for exemption was denied. He and Rutherford said it is unclear why it took so long for the jail staff to learn of the denial.

The AQMD has no power to fine the sheriff’s department, but it could seek $25,000 for each violation if it files a lawsuit to compel the department to install the gas-collecting equipment, Rutherford said.