Supervisors to Reconsider Expansion of Landfill

The future of a garbage dump in the Santa Susana Mountains lies in the hands of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors again today, nearly 18 months after the board last approved the dump’s expansion plans.

Opponents of expansion of the Sunshine Canyon Landfill onto 200 acres of oak forest above Granada Hills said Monday that they were gearing up for another fight. Controversy about the supervisors’ reconsideration is typical of the protracted battle over the landfill, which led to a lawsuit by the city of Los Angeles and a homeowner group that overturned the board’s February, 1991, approval.

A spokesman for Councilman Hal Bernson, who has been an outspoken Sunshine Canyon Landfill critic, said the city would ask that the reconsideration be postponed until revisions of environmental documents--required by a Superior Court judge--have received greater public review.

“If it is approved, the city will more than likely go back to the court,” said Ali Sar, Bernson’s press secretary.

Jim Aidukas, environmental affairs director for landfill owner Browning-Ferris Industries, has said that additions to the environmental impact report already were discussed at a public hearing held during the Los Angeles riots. At least 9,000 meeting notices were sent out, he said, but only about 100 people attended.

Mary Edwards, a representative of the North Valley Coalition, a homeowner and environmentalist group that joined the city’s lawsuit, said she was angry about the timing of the board reconsideration because county officials had told her that it probably would not come up until mid-August, at the earliest.

“We really feel stabbed in the back,” said Edwards, coalition secretary. “Everybody took their vacations based on those assurances . . . It’s one of these last-minute maneuvers that just looks so shady.”

Aidukas, on the other hand, said Browning-Ferris Industries had hoped to have the issue before the board in June.

So far, none of the board members who previously voted for the project have indicated a change of position. Supervisors had approved the expansion 4 to 1 at that time, with Supervisor Mike Antonovich dissenting.

The only supervisor who was not on the board then--Gloria Molina--has said that she believes wealthier areas such as Granada Hills should share the landfill burden. But her spokesman, Robert Alaniz, said that Molina probably would abstain from today’s vote because county attorneys advised her a week ago that she must first read the entire, multivolume environmental impact report.

“There’s no way she can do that in one week,” Alaniz said.

In March, when Judge Ronald Sohigian issued his 71-page ruling overturning the board’s approval, partial victories were declared by all the players--the opponents, the county and the landfill owner.

The North Valley Coalition and the city said that their complaints had finally been heard. At the very least, Edwards said at the time, a new review by supervisors would provide another opportunity for her group to air its proposal for a reduced expansion intended to preserve the lush oak forest on the property.

Browning-Ferris officials, on the other hand, said they were relieved because they considered insignificant the additions they had to make to their environmental impact report (EIR) at the behest of Sohigian and the county’s Significant Ecological Area Technical Advisory Committee. The committee is the only county body that had officially reviewed the additions before today.

The information “was all in the EIR already,” Aidukas said. “It was just resurfaced to answer the judge’s questions.”

Among the provisions in the judge’s ruling was a requirement that Browning-Ferris provide a more detailed description of the landfill’s problems with the city of Los Angeles, including permit violations on the portion of the dump that lies within city limits. The dump closed in September, 1991, after City Council members turned down an expansion onto land under their jurisdiction.

Although mention of that legacy was included in documents submitted to the county, Sar said Bernson did not believe enough detail was provided and would raise that complaint with Sohigian if the board reaffirms its approval today.

If the board does approve the expansion again, Sohigian still would have to review the company’s response to his ruling before expansion could begin. If Sohigian agrees, Sunshine Canyon Landfill could reopen as soon as November, said Dean Wise, Browning-Ferris’ district manager.