Dump Cost to Double by ‘96, City Report Says : Lopez Canyon: Part of the blame rests with the expense of environmental safeguards, a council committee is told.

The cost of operating the Lopez Canyon landfill in Lake View Terrace will double by 1996 because of the expensive environmental safeguards and lengthy review required to expand it, according to a report presented Monday to a Los Angeles City Council committee.

The cost of dumping there will rise from $18 to $40 per ton, the report said. Over five years, the total bill will reach $96 million--six times the total envisioned in 1988--with $56 million attributable to environmental measures, the report said.

The report gave the clearest picture to date on the price of environmental safeguards imposed on the controversial plan to permit expansion of the city-owned landfill, which was approved by the City Council Jan. 15.

The report by City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie was presented to the council’s Environmental Quality and Waste Management Committee.

“This is a real good example of what it costs” to enforce environmental safeguards that will “satisfy the community to some degree” Mike Miller, assistant director of the city’s Bureau of Sanitation, said in an interview. “We’re in a new era.”

As recently as 1988, the city had estimated the cost of expanding the landfill at $15.8 million, one-sixth the current cost.

One-fourth of the $96-million price tag--$24 million--is attributable to the need to ship tens of thousands of tons of garbage to outside landfills because the city will be unable to develop “Canyon C”--the area approved for expansion at Lopez Canyon--as a trash receptacle fast enough, said CAO analyst Richard Hart, who wrote the report.

That amount of outside landfill dumping “was not a factor two years ago” when the city was reviewing its costs, Hart said in an interview.

It became a factor because community groups, elected officials and the South Coast Air Quality Management District delayed the expansion plan and subjected it to intense environmental scrutiny because they worried about the dump’s frequent illegal emissions of methane gas.

The delays put the city in a “race against time,” Hart said. At the current rate of use, the site in Lopez Canyon where the city now dumps will fill by April, 1992, seven months before Canyon C will be ready, he said.

To prolong availability of the current canyon landfill site at least until November, 1992, the city will have to pay to send large amounts of trash to other landfills, he said.

If the city’s expansion plan had been approved sooner, retaining the ability to begin using Canyon C immediately, this cost could have been avoided or reduced, Hart said.

The five-year cost of the landfill expansion includes other expenses to meet environmental demands, including:

* $8 million for a methane gas control system to comply with AQMD anti-pollution rules.

* $24 million for “good neighbor” programs in communities around Lopez Canyon, including $5 million to pay for amenities such as street trees, and an $11-million plan to prevent household hazardous wastes from being disposed of at the dump.

When the expansion was approved, the City Council promised the dump’s neighbors that the dump would close in 1996.

Councilman Ernani Bernardi, who represents those neighborhoods, told the committee, however, that he fears city officials might not have adequate plans to prepare alternative dump sites by 1996. That, Bernardi said, would provide an excuse for the council to change its mind and keep the landfill open beyond that date.

“There is really no commitment” to close Lopez Canyon, Bernardi complained. He added that it would take “only eight votes” on the council--a majority--to extend the dump’s life.

Bernardi was referring to a section of the CAO’s report that referred to the cost of developing the canyon to accommodate dumping to the year 2000. Miller, however, said there are no plans to operate the dump beyond 1996.