Dump Protesters Find Land Is Already Sold : Environment: Santa Claritans demonstrate on the Sunset Strip against Chevron deal that aids the creation of a landfill in Elsmere Canyon.

Do people from Santa Clarita, led by their mayor and determined to prevent the establishment of a dump in Elsmere Canyon, take buses to the Sunset Strip to stage a protest against the sale of oil company land? Only to discover that the land was already sold?

People do.

More than 100 of them, in fact, showed up at a Chevron gasoline station on the Sunset Strip on Tuesday to protest what they said were the oil giant’s plans to sell 970 acres to BKK Corp., land that BKK needs to open the garbage dump.

From toddlers to city officials to senior citizens, the Santa Claritans carried signs in the hot sun, chanted and gave speeches outside the APSI Chevron station at the corner of Sunset and Crescent Heights boulevards. They even dumped garbage on a fellow protester wearing a Smokey the Bear suit to dramatize their demand that Chevron officials not sell the land.

The demonstrators were crestfallen to discover later that the sale was completed almost two weeks ago.

BKK wants to establish a dump site in forested canyon lands east of Santa Clarita in conjunction with the Los Angeles city and county governments, which would eventually take control of the site. The U.S. Forest Service owns much of the land where the dump would be situated and would surrender the property in exchange for other lands put up by BKK or Los Angeles city or county.

To create the dump, BKK needed Chevron’s land to build an access road from the Antelope Valley Freeway, said Marsha McLean, president of the Santa Clarita Valley Canyons Preservation Committee.

McLean, Santa Clarita Mayor Jill Klajic and other protesters said the demonstration was their way of imploring Chevron officials to call off the sale, which they believed had not yet closed escrow.

Cutting off the major access road to the proposed dump site would show the company’s concern for the environment, they said.

Repeatedly, they cited Chevron’s “People Do” ad campaign saluting unsung men and women who go to great lengths to protect the environment--including a man who raised a bear cub and then set it free.

“Their whole image is that they care,” Klajic told her fellow protesters. “But they’re willing to sell out for a few dollars. If they put their money where their mouths are, people would know that Chevron cares.”

But in fact escrow on the land sale closed Aug. 14, after more than four years of negotiations, Chevron officials said Tuesday.

And BKK General Counsel Ronald Gastelum said most of the newly acquired property would become a buffer zone between the proposed 700-acre landfill site and residential neighborhoods built in the future. He said BKK has owned the land it needs for an access road for six years.

Hours after the rally, Klajic sounded surprised and a bit crestfallen when she was told of the sale and BKK’s plans for the property.

“Oh really?” she asked. “That’s interesting. That’s too bad. I hate to hear that.”

She said she still thinks the Chevron land is needed for an access road and that the rally was a success despite the sale.

“It’s our responsibility to let people know Chevron is not standing by its word, to show Chevron doesn’t really care at all,” she said. “So I think it was worth it. These corporations need to be held accountable.”

Representatives of Chevron and BKK, however, said they thought the group’s protests were not only ill-timed, but misdirected.

“Some people out there are just whipping people up over a lot of false statements,” said Gastelum. “This is just another example. It’s too bad.”

Malcolm McCulloch, a Chevron real estate representative, agreed. “It’s not our affair,” he said. “Isn’t it up to the elected officials, and due process, to determine land-use? They’re the people the protesters should be talking to.”

The Chevron and BKK representatives said the sale culminated a longstanding option agreement between the firms. They would not disclose the price.

Protest organizers said they chose APSI Chevron as the site of their action because it is owned directly by the San Francisco-based corporation rather than a franchise holder.