Santa Clarita Residents Assail New Dump Plans : Sanitation: Critics say the county is ignoring recycling and other alternatives by proposing landfills in nearby canyons.

Los Angeles County sanitation officials are misguidedly planning new garbage dumps in the Santa Clarita Valley instead of encouraging recycling and other alternatives to landfills in scenic mountain canyons, valley residents charged Wednesday night.

At a public hearing attended by more than 200 people, public officials and private citizens denounced the draft of an environmental impact report which said landfills could be safely operated in Towsley Canyon and Elsmere Canyon, both just outside the city of Santa Clarita.

State Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita), in a letter read by aide Mark Matta, noted that a new study found that Towsley Canyon was located within a rich forest worthy of being a state park. The study by the Department of Parks and Recreation, released Tuesday, concluded that 8,000 acres of the Santa Susana Mountains west of Santa Clarita deserve protection because of their abundant and unusual plants and wildlife.

The draft environmental impact report prepared by the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, does not address the impact of a garbage dump on the canyon, Davis said.

Officials of the Sanitation Districts have billed the report as a comprehensive plan to reduce and dispose of garbage in the county.

But Santa Clarita City Councilwoman Jill Klajic and other speakers said the report gives scant attention to recycling and innovative concepts in handling garbage, such as hauling it by rail to remote desert locations. “Instead, you rely on stale concepts and dangerous proposals,” Klajic said.

Wednesday night’s meeting at the William S. Hart High School auditorium, the fifth public hearing on the draft, was scheduled after Santa Clarita officials and County Supervisor Mike Antonovich complained that the first four hearings were held outside the Santa Clarita Valley.

The environmental impact report, which could be completed early next year, also said landfills could be located in Blind Canyon above Chatsworth and in three canyons--Mission, Rustic and Sullivan--in the Santa Monica Mountains.