Council Offers Cleanup in Lieu of Big Landfill Fines : Lopez Canyon: The proposal is the result of negotiations with the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday offered to fund a $150,000 household hazardous waste cleanup program in lieu of paying hefty civil fines for air pollution violations at the city-owned Lopez Canyon Landfill.

Councilman Ernani Bernardi and Deputy City Atty. Chris Westhoff predicted that the South Coast Air Quality Management District will accept the offer and drop numerous air pollution citations it issued against the Lake View Terrace landfill.

The settlement is a product of lengthly negotiations between the city and the AQMD, which could have sought fines of up to $700,000 for 28 violations, Westhoff said.

During the past two years, the AQMD has repeatedly cited the city for allowing excessive amounts of methane gas to escape from the dump. Odors at the landfill have prompted protests from nearby homeowners.

Bernardi, who represents the northeast Valley and has been an outspoken critic of the landfill, endorsed Tuesday’s settlement offer. “It’s a big improvement,” he said.

Also, the council agreed Tuesday to pay a $5,000 fine for each violation of AQMD air pollution regulations at the dump found after Jan. 31, 1991. The city agreed to pay a $5,000 fine as a concession to the AQMD, which typically seeks $1,000 for each landfill emission violation, Westhoff said.

Under provisions backed by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), a Lopez Canyon critic, the city would pay any future fines into a city-controlled trust account to be used for local environmental projects.

Such projects could include anything from tree plantings to buying recreational facilities, Katz said.

The initial $150,000 will be used exclusively to finance a project to collect and properly dispose of household hazardous wastes in the northeast Valley.

Environmentalists and neighbors of the landfill have complained that the city has not done enough to ensure that common hazardous wastes--including motor oil, paint and insecticides--are not buried at Lopez Canyon, the major dumping ground for city-collected residential garbage.

The settlement offer approved Tuesday by the council is part of a wider city plan to clean up Lopez Canyon.

The council on Sept. 18 authorized spending $3.2 million to upgrade its methane gas abatement system at Lopez Canyon, including the drilling of about 100 additional gas wells at Lopez Canyon.

The system collects the methane gas generated by the decaying garbage and burns it off.

Westhoff said the city has 153 wells at the landfill and expects to have 200 by mid-November.