Katz Says Pact Is Near on Dump Emissions : Pollution: Lopez Canyon Landfill has been a point of contention between the city, neighbors and air-quality officials.

An agreement has been worked out aimed at satisfying all three sides in the contentious Lopez Canyon Landfill dispute--Los Angeles city administrators, state air-quality officials and dump neighbors sickened by methane gas emissions--Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) said Wednesday.

Katz said that a daylong meeting he called behind closed doors Wednesday produced the framework of an agreement under which the city will bring the dump into compliance with state air-pollution laws by Dec. 15 and pay a $5,000 fine each time air-quality officials cite it for gas leakage violations after that date.

The money would go into a fund to benefit the surrounding neighborhoods, said Katz, whose district includes the dump area.

“It was pretty extraordinary in that I think we broke a stalemate” between city and regional air-quality officials and the dump’s neighbors, Katz said. “This is an incredible breakthrough in its benefits to the neighborhood,” because it “ensures the neighborhood can hold the city accountable,” Katz said.

He said the hastily called meeting was attended by city Bureau of Sanitation officials, representatives of the South Coast Air Quality Management District enforcement staff and City Councilman Ernani Bernardi’s office, as well as Rob Zapple--a neighborhood leader in the fight against methane gas emissions, and Michael Magnuson, an attorney who represents a group of residents who live near the landfill.

Katz said a meeting will be held Monday night, at a location to be determined, to inform the public of details of the agreement, which also must be approved by the City Council and an AQMD hearing board. The board has been holding hearings into noxious gas emissions from the landfill. Katz said more public comments will be taken at that time.

Katz said other highlights of the proposed agreement include:

* A phased closure of the portion of the landfill that faces Kagel Canyon homes.

* Increased monitoring of air by AQMD inspectors and engineers.

* Public access to any city and state documents having to do with the landfill.

* Formation of a task force of community members to advise the city and AQMD on landfill problems.

* Appointment of a community member to a group of city and state officials that will meet once a month to discuss landfill problems.

Neighbors of the dump have complained for years of smelly and dangerous methane and other gases leaking from garbage decomposing underground. The AQMD last week cited the city for 28 violations of air-pollution laws for gas leaks, exposing the city to up to $700,000 in fines. The amount of the fine is being negotiated.

Tuesday the City Council--carrying out an agreement reached earlier with the AQMD--approved spending $3.25 million to improve the dump’s gas-collection system.

The secrecy surrounding the meeting miffed some dump opponents and members of the South Coast Air Quality Management hearing board, which had to cancel its own scheduled hearing on the matter because its staff members were attending Katz’s meeting.

“It appears to me that the district has been playing games with us,” said board member Mark Abramowitz, when informed by an AQMD attorney that the staff was meeting with the public.

Dump opponents Anson Burlingame of Shadow Hills and Phyllis Hines of the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn. said they knew nothing of Katz’s effort.

Burlingame called the meeting “a real slap in the face. The thing that makes me angry is that Katz has been upset about back room agreements and then he sets this one up. I don’t think this should have been a back room deal.”

Hines said she went to Katz’s office after she learned of the meeting, was not invited to participate and left. However, she said, the proposal “sounds like it has some good points.”

Katz said participants were meant to be a “working group” to find solutions to the landfill problems.

“There were no deals cut in this thing,” Zapple said. “There were no solid agreements. There will be more public input.”

He said he believes the concepts in the agreement are “very good and very positive for the community. We’re the ones who are suffering.”

Zapple said participants in the meeting were frustrated with the length of the board’s hearings, which started in April. Nevertheless, he urged that the hearings continue.