L.A. Faces Fines for Landfill Emissions

Regional air quality officials, saying Los Angeles’ attempt to control methane gas emissions from Lopez Canyon Landfill is not working, ruled Friday that from now on fines of up to $25,000 a day can be levied against the city for violations of state pollution laws.

The action by the South Coast Air Quality Management District came on the 20th day of hearings into noxious gas emissions at the Northeast San Fernando Valley dump, the city’s only operating landfill. The hearings, which have been held periodically since April, were begun after elected officials, and residents who live near the dump, asked the board to close the landfill until gas emissions are controlled.

City sanitation officials said they believed that they were protected from fines while they worked on a gas control system at the dump because of an AQMD order issued in August, 1989.

But members of the hearing board said they never intended that their order should be interpreted as a variance--or permit--allowing the city Bureau of Sanitation to violate state law governing gas emissions. “It is clear in my mind that the order I voted for was not intended to act as a variance,” board member James D. Joyce said.

Board member Martin Abramowitz said the city should be “liable for every day it violates the law” from now on.

Whether to actually impose the fines will be up to the district’s enforcement staff.

City officials have admitted that a system they installed to control and burn off methane gas is not performing adequately but have maintained throughout the hearings that the landfill is nearing “substantial compliance” with state law.

But hearing board members pointed to the city’s own records in concluding that the system, built for nearly $4 million, is not working. As recently as July, methane gas emissions were measured at 10,000 parts per million of air, 20 times the level permitted by the state.

“We don’t agree with the city that they are in substantial compliance” with state law, AQMD attorney Elliott Sernel said.

On Friday, the hearing board also extended for the second time--this time for 45 days--the order it issued last August that the gas burning system be brought into compliance.

The extension allows the board, a quasi-judicial body, to continue the hearing into alleged violations.

“I’m not in favor of going back to square one and starting these hearings all over again,” said member Esther Lewin. “I want us to get on with what we have to do.”

Assistant City Atty. Christopher Westhoff, who represented the Bureau of Sanitation, asked the board not to extend the order if it would not serve as a variance. He threatened court action if the AQMD tries to impose the fines and more stringent controls.