Gas Emissions at Lopez Canyon Landfill Still Called Excessive

The regional air quality inspector assigned to the Lopez Canyon Landfill said Friday that the dump still emits much greater quantities of noxious gases than allowed by state law, even in areas where the city of Los Angeles has installed a system to control the emissions.

Terry Wilkinson, an inspector for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, also testified before the AQMD hearing board that foul odors caused by gases given off by garbage rotting underground at the northeastern San Fernando Valley dump still afflict neighborhoods near the landfill.

“Yes, there is still an odor problem,” Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson’s testimony contradicted earlier statements by city officials, including landfill Manager John De La Rosa and Ed Ostrowski, the engineer formerly in charge of installing the gas collection system. Both testified that they had not smelled odors at the landfill.

The AQMD hearing board, a quasi-judicial body, has been conducting hearings into excess methane gas emissions at the dump since April. It hopes to wind up its inquiry with a public hearing Oct. 18 in Lake View Terrace.

Board members said they plan on Oct. 19 to approve, with changes, an agreement under which the city agreed to spend millions of dollars on measures to control dump gas emissions. Board members also said they will add their own conditions to the agreement, reached last month between the city Bureau of Sanitation and the AQMD enforcement staff.

“I don’t think that what we have before us meets the needs of the community,” board member Mark Abramowitz said.

Residents, who in April called on the board to close the landfill, said Friday that they are unhappy with the agreement, despite an attempt by AQMD officials and Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) to remedy neighbors’ complaints.

“As far as I’m concerned, it isn’t adequate,” said Dennis Ghiatis, vice president of the Kagel Canyon Civic Assn.

During several hours of testimony, Wilkinson said he measured methane gas emissions at the landfill last month at more than 10,000 parts per million of air, or 20 times the amount allowed by state law. There also were strong odors in the area of the dump known as Canyon A, where he was testing, he said.

Last Saturday, Wilkinson said, he was called to the dump after the AQMD received several complaints about foul odors. He said that by the time he arrived, however, the smell was not strong enough to cite the city.

Wilkinson said that he had been sickened by dump fumes in September, 1989, just a month after the hearing board issued an order requiring the city to install a gas collection system to control emissions.

“The odors impacted a great area,” he said. “I felt ill from the odors.”

Assistant City Atty. Christopher M. Westhoff, representing the Bureau of Sanitation, said that, overall, the gas emissions problem is improving. Only small areas of the landfill still are in violation of state law, he said.

Since December, the city has spent about $4 million to install a gas collection system at the dump. The City Council last month allocated an additional $3.25 million for more wells and flares to collect and burn off the gas.