Council OKs Partnership on Elsmere Landfill : Dumps: The city-county agreement opens Lopez Canyon to outsiders’ trash but spares three scenic Santa Monica Mountains canyons from consideration as dump sites.

The Los Angeles City Council approved a complex garbage disposal agreement with the county Tuesday, despite allegations from two councilmen that the contract could invite an avalanche of garbage from outside the city at the city’s landfill at Lopez Canyon.

The pact creates a city-county partnership to begin preparing a huge trash dump in Elsmere Canyon, near Santa Clarita. It also prevents three scenic canyons in the Santa Monica Mountains, once listed as future garbage dumps, from becoming landfills.

BKK Inc., a private waste management firm that owns the Elsmere site, stands to earn a $125-million profit after covering its costs of buying about 2,000 acres in Elsmere Canyon, obtaining environmental clearances and preparing the site to receive garbage.

Although the agreement reflects more than a year of closed-door negotiations aimed at achieving a deal that the City Council would support, it had to be voted on twice Tuesday because Councilman Gilbert Lindsay--apparently confused about what was being voted on--initially voted no, leaving it one vote short of passage.

Also voting against the plan were Councilmen Nate Holden and Ernani Bernardi, who objected to a clause that could allow the county to dump garbage in Lopez Canyon, a municipal dump above Lake View Terrace that now is reserved for city residential trash.

“We’re giving up everything,” Holden said. “The county is pretty clever . . . they could probably hurt you down the road a little bit” by excessive dumping in Lopez Canyon.

Asked about those concerns, Ron Deaton, the assistant chief legislative analyst who helped negotiate the agreement for the city, said any increase in the number of garbage trucks allowed to dump at Lopez Canyon each day would have to be approved by the city, the county health department and the state Integrated Waste Management Board. Four hundred trucks currently dump their loads at the city garbage dump each day.

“The county said, with the trash crisis now, they would like a chance to use it,” Deaton said. “This provides that that be considered--not allowed, but considered.”

Last summer, the city Bureau of Sanitation agreed to limit truck traffic at the dump in response to criticism by the state waste management board. The state began investigating the city’s operation of the landfill after two city workers were overcome by toxic landfill gases in March, 1989.

The city-county agreement--approved March 27 by the county Board of Supervisors--contained an urgency clause, which means it will become effective in 10 days instead of the usual 40 days. A measure that contains an urgency clause requires 12 “yes” votes from the 15-member council to win passage.

With Councilman Michael Woo absent and Holden and Bernardi voting against the pact, Lindsay’s vote was critical. But when the council’s vote-board lit up, there were 11 green lights and three red lights. Lindsay--who frequently has appeared distracted since suffering a stroke in late 1988--had a red light next to his name, indicating he had sided with the minority and voted “no.”

“Mr. Lindsay! “ Council President John Ferraro shouted, exasperation in his voice. Other council members giggled.

As several council members called for another vote, Councilman Hal Bernson and Lindsay aide Bob Gay rushed to the 89-year-old councilman’s side.

The agreement was approved 12 to 2 on a second vote. Gay and Bernson both said Lindsay was confused by an earlier Bernardi motion that would have barred county garbage from Lopez Canyon. They said they had set Lindsay straight.

“I don’t control his vote,” Gay said. “All I do is try to encourage him to follow his heart.”

No public comment on the issue was allowed before the council vote because a public hearing had been held April 17. However, several environmentalists later objected to approving the pact before completion of environmental studies at the Santa Clarita site.

“This is terrible. Why did they rush this through?” asked Michele Grumet, a member of the California Alliance for the Defense of Residential Environments.

Susan Nelson, a member of Friends of the Santa Monica Mountains, said the agreement should have emphasized garbage reduction measures, such as recycling, instead of landfills.

“They’ve been listening to the County Sanitation Districts saying, ‘We’re running out of space tomorrow,’ ” Nelson said. “It’s the most simple-minded, prehistoric way of dealing with trash.”