Court Halts Expansion of Azusa Landfill : Environment: The appellate judges see a threat to drinking water supplies. The dump firm must meet state requirements.

State and regional water authorities should have ordered environmental reviews before approving the expansion of a controversial Azusa landfill, the state Court of Appeal has ruled. The decision was hailed by environmentalists and local water agencies, who hope the ruling will help protect the San Gabriel Valley’s vulnerable ground water supply.

A three-judge panel in Los Angeles on Monday reversed a lower court judgment that had allowed the expansion of the landfill, located on a 302-acre quarrying site near the intersection of the Foothill and San Gabriel River freeways.

The appellate court said there is no doubt that the dump’s expansion “could cause numerous and substantial adverse changes” in the San Gabriel Basin, including “contamination of a public drinking water supply.”

The expansion, begun in October, 1989, after a 3-2 vote by the State Water Resources Control Board, “already has produced potential adverse consequences,” the appellate court said. The 20-year expansion would quadruple the daily intake capacity of the dump, which is operated by Azusa Land Reclamation Co., a subsidiary of the nation’s second-largest waste disposal firm, Browning-Ferris Industries.

The court ruled that the state water board must permit no further expansion until the landfill--the county’s least active--meets the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act. Water authorities, the court said, should have required the landfill to undertake a new environmental impact report to fully assess the effects of the project.

A Superior Court judge said last April that he did not think an environmental study was necessary because the state water board and the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board had reviewed the project’s consequences.

Beneath the landfill rests part of a huge aquifer that supplies 90% of the water used by 1 million residents of the San Gabriel Valley. The water already is being threatened by pollution from industrial solvents and degreasing agents discovered in 1979. Federal officials have declared it to be one of the worst water pollution problems in the West.

A dispute centers on whether the landfill is to blame for any of the pollution. Landfill officials say that they are not responsible and add that they have taken extraordinary precautions with the expansion, including installation of a state-of-the-art liner between the landfill and the water table.

Landfill Manager Paul Schelstrate and Norman Flette, a deputy attorney general representing the state water board, said it is too early to tell whether there will be an appeal.