Air Pollution Board to Hold 2nd Hearing Today on Volatile Dump Issue

An air pollution board that is reviewing gas emission problems at the Lopez Canyon dump, owned by the city of Los Angeles, has scheduled a second hearing today in Lake View Terrace, despite City Hall protests that the dump’s neighbors created a “lynch mob” atmosphere last week at the first hearing there.

If the city gets its way, the sometimes raucous hearings involving the Lopez Canyon dump will end today with the air board ratifying an agreement reached earlier between the city and the South Coast Air Quality Management District staff.

Under that agreement, the city would install up to 200 additional gas collection wells at the dump in Lake View Terrace and boost the capacity of the landfill’s flaring station, which burns methane gas gathered by the wells.

The air district’s staff is expected to present the agreement to the SCAQMD variance hearing board--the five-member panel conducting the hearings--within days and to ask the board to convert the accord into a legally binding order, Deputy City Atty. Chris Westhoff said.

Approval of such an order would represent a victory for the city. It would end the need for additional hearings--which have proved to be an embarrassing catalyst for intense public anger against the dump--and it would require the city to do only what it has already privately agreed to do.

But community activist Rob Zapple, a member of the board of the Kagel Canyon Civic Assn., said such a solution would be grossly inadequate.

Zapple and other activists are calling on the variance hearing board to close the dump or sharply limit the daily number of trucks off-loading at the landfill until the city eliminates the site’s gas problems.

Tests earlier this year found methane gas concentrations of 10,000 parts per million leaking from the landfill. State regulations limit leaks to 500 p.p.m.

The variance hearing board in August issued an order requiring the city to install gas collection wells and a flare station at Lopez Canyon, set deadlines for doing the work and imposed inspection and reporting requirements.

The SCAQMD believes that the city is in full compliance with the order, Elliott Sernel, SCAQMD enforcement prosecutor, said. On the other hand, because the air district and the city now recognize that the existing gas collection system is inadequate, they have agreed to install more wells.

Westhoff said Friday that he expects the SCAQMD variance hearing board to require hearings for the city to defend its Lopez Canyon operations “because this whole thing has taken on a life of its own.”

But if more hearings are required, Westhoff said, the city would insist that they be held at SCAQMD headquarters in El Monte and that the variance hearing board present the city with a written set of accusations against the city to justify the hearings.

Earlier this week, Westhoff contended that a “lynch mob” atmosphere was allowed to prevail during the April 27 hearing. Lopez Canyon foes have denied that the situation was as unruly as described by Westhoff, although they conceded that Westhoff was the target of boos and catcalls as he cross-examined foes of the dump.

Today’s hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. at the Lake View Terrace Recreation Center, 11075 Foothill Blvd.

Although the air district staff advised the variance hearing board that it might want armed security guards at today’s hearing, the board’s staff said Friday that no guards had been requested.