Councilman Seeks Assurances on Dirt Shipments at Dump : Waste disposal: Sunshine Canyon operator is ordered to promise that earth being trucked in will not be used to expand the landfill.

A Los Angeles City Councilman’s office warned Tuesday that the owners of the Sunshine Canyon dump in Granada Hills must promise in writing to limit the use of tons of dirt being trucked to the site or the city will block the deliveries.

Responding to complaints from homeowners about the trucking operation, Councilman Hal Bernson’s office gave Browning-Ferris Industries Inc. until Friday to sign a pledge not to use the dirt to expand the dump.

If the company does not meet the deadline, Bernson will ask the city Department of Building and Safety to immediately revoke a permit needed by the contractor carrying out the dumping, said Greig Smith, Bernson’s chief deputy.

Bernson was in San Francisco Tuesday on city business, Smith said.

Part of the dump, which has long been the subject of protests by neighbors, lies within the city limits and was shut down when its city permit expired Sept. 21.

Another portion lies outside the city, under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles County government, which has authorized Browning-Ferris to expand operations there.

A city zoning official has twice issued warnings in recent weeks forbidding Browning-Ferris to use its city landfill site as a staging area for work to expand the county portion.

Browning-Ferris began trucking dirt to the site Monday and continued Tuesday.

That brought charges from longtime homeowner opponents of the dump that the dirt is to be used to construct a road or leak-resistant lining for the county side of the landfill, violating the city order.

Browning-Ferris executive Dean Wise denied Monday that the dirt is for the expansion, saying it will be used to cover the surface of the landfill and provide a base for revegetating its slopes, uses all sides agree is legal.

Mary Edwards of the North Valley Coalition, a homeowner group that has led the fight against the landfill, was unhappy to learn that Bernson’s deadline for Browning-Ferris was Friday. “That’s ridiculous,” she said. “Why can’t it be enforceable immediately?”

The dirt is being hauled by contractor C.A. Rasmussen Inc. from a construction site at the Metropolitan Water District’s Jensen Filtration Plant.

Rasmussen has a $17-million contract with MWD to do grading and earth-hauling work as part of the $185-million expansion of the water agency’s plant, about a half-mile away, said MWD spokesman Bob Gomperz.

The Rasmussen firm has about four more weeks of earth-hauling to do, Gomperz said.

If Browning-Ferris does not comply with his demand, Bernson would seek to revoke Rasmussen’s hauling permit, which would greatly increase the contractor’s expenses, Smith said.

“Rasmussen is just the poor guy in the middle,” he added. “But that’s life in the big city.”

Rasmussen representatives could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Although the homeowner leaders criticized the Friday deadline as too lenient, Bernson must communicate his demand in writing to Browning-Ferris and give the company a reasonable time to reply, Smith said.

“We have to play the game by the rules,” Smith said. “When we are dealing with a litigious opponent, we have to do everything right.”

Smith stopped short of accusing Browning-Ferris of violating city zoning laws.

But he said if the letter from Browning-Ferris pledging not to use the dirt for the new landfill is not forthcoming, “then it’ll be obvious that their intent is to use the dirt for purposes other than those permitted” by city zoning laws.