Sunshine Canyon Dumping Is Illegal Opponents Allege : Environment: Foes say thousands of tons of dirt hauled to the landfill are being used for expansion. The operator denies their charge.

Longtime opponents of the Sunshine Canyon dump in Granada Hills accused the dump’s owners of taking advantage of the Columbus Day holiday Monday to truck in 8,000 tons of dirt for a road in violation of Los Angeles city zoning rulings.

A spokesman for Browning-Ferris Industries, which owns the dump, denied the charge by Mary Edwards and Wayde Hunter, leaders of the North Valley Coalition, a homeowner group.

“Everything I do is wrong with these people,” said Browning-Ferris District Manager Dean Wise, denying that the dumping was illegal. “These attacks are part of the harassment we’ve suffered for years.”

Wise estimated that 700 truck trips were being made Monday to haul 8,000 tons of dirt onto the landfill.

Three weeks ago, coalition leaders celebrated the end of garbage-dumping operations on the portion of Browning-Ferris’ Sunshine Canyon property that lies in the city of Los Angeles. On Sept. 21, Browning-Ferris’ city permit to dump garbage at Sunshine expired, thus ending several decades of controversial operations at the site.

But Edwards and Hunter resumed protests Monday when they discovered long lines of double-trailer trucks hauling dirt from the Metropolitan Water District’s Jensen Filtration Plant to the landfill.

“The trucks are going up to the landfill at a rate of three or five a minute,” Hunter said.

The landfill and filtration plant are about half a mile apart. Wise said the dirt is being supplied free by a contractor doing excavation work at the filtration plant, which is being expanded.

“As far as I’m concerned, this is a sneaky move, timed for a holiday so there’d be little we could do to get help from the city,” Hunter said. City Hall was closed Monday for Columbus Day.

Edwards and Hunter claimed that the operation is illegal, alleging that Browning-Ferris intends to use the dirt to assist its plan to develop a second landfill on a site in Los Angeles County that adjoins its city property.

The pair cited two rulings by Robert Janovici, the city’s chief zoning administrator, to back their case.

Janovici held Sept. 25 and Oct. 10 that Browning-Ferris did not have a city permit to use its city property as a staging area for developing a landfill on its property under county jurisdiction, for which the company has a county permit. Given the controversy surrounding the landfill, it is unlikely that Browning-Ferris could easily obtain a city permit.

Edwards alleged that the dirt being hauled onto Browning-Ferris’ city property is being dumped along the route of a proposed road that would link its city property to its undeveloped county landfill. The dirt is needed to build up the elevated road, Edwards said.

Edwards cited a letter from a contractor to Browning-Ferris that was filed with state authorities and explains that Browning-Ferris’ county landfill would be lined with dirt from the Jensen plant, which will create a leak-resistant liner under the landfill.

Defending Browning-Ferris, Wise said the company has a city Department of Building and Safety permit to stockpile dirt from the Jensen plant on its city property. “No one has informed me that we’re not legally entitled to do what we are doing today,” Wise said.

Wise, however, said that if the stockpiled dirt can be used as liner material at the county landfill site, he would “consider” using it for that purpose. “If it’s usable, I’d like to be able to use it” for liner, Wise said. “Sure, I’d like to. But today I have no plans to use it that way.”

Wise said he did not know if he would need an additional permit to use the dirt being stockpiled at Sunshine on Monday for the purpose of building the road or the lining.

He said the dirt-hauling operation would continue today.

City Councilman Hal Bernson, who has been a staunch foe of the Sunshine Canyon landfill, could not be reached for comment Monday on the latest chapter in the fight between homeowners and Browning-Ferris.