Canyon Not Likely Site for Landfill : Sanitation: The area near Brentwood is the least feasible of four sites, say officials and environmentalists.

A site above Brentwood encompassing parts of Mission, Sullivan and Rustic canyons may have been classified as environmentally suitable for a landfill in a report by the county sanitation districts issued recently, but it remains highly unlikely that a dump will ever be located there, environmentalists and public officials say.

The Mission-Sullivan-Rustic site, a short distance south of Mulholland Drive just west of the San Diego Freeway, was one of four sites considered as prospective locations for future landfills. The others were Blind, Towsley and Elsmere canyons above the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys.

The draft environmental report, prepared under the direction of the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts and county Department of Public Works, said all four sites could be used as landfills without polluting ground-water supplies.

The report, which was released last Friday, acknowledges that new landfills would destroy wildlife habitat and that garbage trucks would create noise and traffic problems, but it says environmental problems can be minimized by efficient design and operation of the landfills. The report also calls for expanding existing dumps, increased recycling and a reduction in waste.

The Sanitation Districts have long considered the four sites for landfills, and the report’s conclusion did not come as a surprise, said Hunt Braly, an aide to state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita). Davis, along with the Santa Clarita City Council and Supervisor Mike Antonovich, opposes a dump in Towsley Canyon, touted by wildlife enthusiasts as prime land for a state park.

Notwithstanding the report’s conclusions on the Mission-Sullivan-Rustic site, Braly said it was clear that influential supervisors and Los Angeles City Council members would never permit a dump in that neighborhood, he said.

“We all know those are even less politically feasible than Towsley and Elsmere,” he said.

In fact, the County Board of Supervisors and Los Angeles City Council have already said that if a dump is opened in Elsmere Canyon, Mission, Rustic and Sullivan canyons will be declared off-limits for use as a landfill.

Rob Zapple, an San Fernando Valley neighborhood activist who has long been involved in the fight over the dump sites, dismissed the environmental analysis of Mission-Rustic-Sullivan as a public relations ploy designed to give the impression that the county is actually considering dump sites outside the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys.

Braly offered a similar interpretation, saying the report confirmed to him that the sanitation agency is determined to place all its new landfills in northern Los Angeles County. “They want both Elsmere and Towsley, plus Sunshine Canyon,” he said, referring to the proposed expansion of the dump above Granada Hills.

The concentration of so many dumps in one area would make the region the “armpit of Los Angeles,” Braly said.

Some critics of the report were more concerned that it appeared to point toward a continued heavy reliance on landfills in general by the county sanitation agency.

“My initial reaction concern is that . . . it sounds like the county Sanitation Districts are still moving ahead on landfill development without having a good source reduction and recycling plan in place,” said Jill Ratner, Venice-based director of Citizens for a Better Environment, a statewide group. “That still is putting the cart before the horse.”

The public has until Nov. 1 to comment on the report before a final version is prepared for the governing board of the Sanitation Districts and the County Board of Supervisors.