Forums Planned on Elsmere Canyon Landfill : Santa Clarita: The meetings are intended to get opinions for the environmental impact report on the proposed 190-million-ton dump.

The long process of assessing the potential hazards and benefits of the proposed Elsmere Canyon landfill officially begins today with a public meeting in Santa Clarita which could establish some of the issues that will be covered in the environmental review of the controversial project.

The meeting is the first of two public forums this week sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service and Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning, which are overseeing the preparation of the environmental impact report on the proposed 190-million-ton garbage dump.

The meetings will give the public a chance to raise the concerns that should be addressed in the environmental report, said Richard Borden, special projects coordinator with the Forest Service. A draft of the report could be completed by August, 1991, he said.

Officials in Santa Clarita said Monday that they launched an aggressive campaign aimed at encouraging hundreds of residents to attend the meetings to voice their fears about the dump planned east of the Antelope Valley Freeway and a mile outside the city limits.

About 15,000 flyers encouraging residents to attend the meetings were printed at city expense and were sent home with children in the Newhall and Saugus school districts Monday and last Friday, said Gail Foy, a Santa Clarita spokeswoman.

The Santa Clarita Valley Canyon Preservation Committee, a citizens’ group, helped distribute the flyers to 17 campuses in the two elementary school districts, Foy said.

The city also ran newspaper advertisements and sent letters to more than 600 community leaders and organizations, urging them to attend the meetings.

The Santa Clarita City Council has repeatedly said a garbage dump in Elsmere Canyon would pollute air and local water supplies, create visual blight and traffic congestion.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and Los Angeles City Council have heralded Elsmere Canyon as an ideal site for a landfill.

Today’s public meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the William S. Hart High School auditorium, 24825 Newhall Ave. The second meeting will be held Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Granada Hills Women’s Club, 10666 White Oak Ave.

A third meeting, for public agencies, is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in Alhambra.

The county and Forest Service are jointly supervising the preparation of the environmental report because 1,600 acres of the 2,220-acre site are located in Angeles National Forest. The dump would occupy about 600 acres of the canyon, said Ronald R. Gastelum, an attorney for BKK Corp., the firm preparing the site for the county and city of Los Angeles.