Hard-Won Hearing Slated on Landfill Sites

Los Angeles County sanitation officials, bowing to pressure generated by the city of Santa Clarita, will hold a public hearing Wednesday in Santa Clarita on plans to operate two garbage dumps just outside the city.

The forum will be the fifth public hearing on an environmental impact report that concluded that four mountain sites ringing the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys would be suitable for landfills. The hearing will begin at 6 p.m. in the William S. Hart High School auditorium, 24825 Newhall Ave.

The Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts held hearings on the report last month in Torrance, Granada Hills, Glendale and Whittier.

The Santa Clarita City Council, which vows to block the proposed landfills, had requested a hearing in the Santa Clarita Valley. Two dump sites, in Towsley and Elsmere canyons, are in the valley.

The sanitation districts initially rejected the request, but later, responding to a request from Supervisor Mike Antonovich, agreed to a hearing in the city. One of Antonovich’s field deputies is Santa Clarita Mayor Jo Anne Darcy.

Joe Haworth, a spokesman for the sanitation districts, said the first four public hearings were conveniently located for residents throughout the county. He conceded that Santa Clarita pushed for a fifth hearing “until they got our attention.”

Santa Clarita officials hope for a large crowd. The city printed 17,000 flyers announcing the hearing and, working with a citizens group called the Santa Clarita Valley Canyons Preservation Committee, distributed the flyers Monday through the Saugus, Newhall and Sulphur Springs elementary school districts.

Santa Clarita City Manager George Caravalho said Monday that the environmental impact report fails to consider alternatives to urban landfills, such as recycling and hauling trash by rail to remote desert locations.