AQMD Acts to Ensure Dump’s Compliance

Regional air-quality officials adopted a measure Tuesday that would enable them to go to court if necessary to shut down Lopez Canyon Landfill.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District’s hearing board voted 3 to 2 in favor of an order requiring noxious gas emissions and odors to be kept in check at the controversial landfill, whose operations and alleged health hazards have been the subject of public hearings over the last year.

The measure essentially copies an agreement already approved by the Los Angeles City Council and does little more than provide the agency with one extra document that it could take to a judge to prove that the landfill is violating environmental rules, officials said.

“Technically, it wasn’t necessary but it provides us with a stronger position, a better enforcement tool in ensuring the landfill stays in compliance,” said AQMD attorney Elliott R. Sernel. “A lot of it is due to the fact that the city in the past hasn’t always acted in the best of faith and we felt it was necessary to have an additional document as a kind of additional hammer.”

Christopher M. Westhoff, an assistant city attorney representing the sanitation bureau, said he was confident such action wouldn’t be needed. He also maintained that the city-owned dump in the northeastern San Fernando Valley is operating in compliance with district regulations.

Dissenting were board members William F. Banks and Mark Abramowitz, who said he voted against the order because it was not strict enough. Banks could not be reached for comment.

Abramowitz, an environmental consultant, tried to strengthen the measure with several proposals, including a ban on landfill expansion until any existing violations have been corrected and the dump has been in compliance for at least 30 days.

But his proposal was rejected in a 3-2 vote, with members Harold Brown, Esther Lewin and James Joyce in the majority.

Abramowitz said later that he believed the board had been swayed by threats that the city would file suit if board members tried to impose any conditions stricter than those agreed to by the City Council.

One additional requirement adopted by the hearing board Tuesday was an order that the city submit a status report by April 1 on landfill operations and compliance.

Phyllis Hines, a member of the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn., said “we were very disappointed the board didn’t support” Abramowitz’s motion.

“After 36 hearings, we hoped for just a little bit more,” Hines said. But she added that in general, “I feel the board did quite a bit of good.”