Landfill Protest to Be Delivered With the Pizza

The campaign against a landfill proposed for Elsmere Canyon takes a turn for the tasty this week.

Having distributed the familiar protest posters and penned the customary letters to the editor, opponents said they will unveil a novel tactic today: anti-dump flyers on pizza delivery boxes.

The three Domino’s Pizza outlets in Santa Clarita will attach the flyers to boxes containing the 4,000 pizzas sold every week.

“We’re trying to reach as many people in the Santa Clarita Valley as possible,” City Councilwoman Jill Klajic said.

“We’re probably going to reach the 20 to 30 age group who are usually commuters, and they’re not here a lot and probably aren’t reading the local newspaper,” Klajic said. “They come home late from a long day’s work, order a pizza and watch the TV news and go to sleep.”

Developers of the landfill, the Torrance-based BKK Corp., said flyers on pizza boxes are “non-informative” and play on emotions.

“Our public relations will be based on trying to get information out in a forum that people can evaluate and make an informed judgment on,” said Ronald R. Gastelum, chief administrative officer of BKK.

Pizza parlor owner John Lannum said the strategy represents his most effective form of advertising, with customers often using coupons printed on the box tops.

It’s just another step in a campaign that has included mass mailings by elected officials and free videos about the dangers of the dump.

Yet to come in the battle over the canyon, which opponents assert contains endangered wildlife, viridescent hills, and a 50-foot waterfall, are local radio and television spots, full-page newspaper advertisements and still more flyers.

“There’s nothing we won’t do to stop that garbage dump,” said Klajic, who plans a trip to Washington soon to meet with U.S. Sens. Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer of California to lobby against the dump.

In the radio ads, Santa Clarita residents talk about their fears of the effect of a dump on the air, traffic and water supply of the area. “We don’t want Santa Clarita to become the Valley of the Dumps,” one resident says.

BKK officials describe the proposed dump site as an ordinary gully where oil seeps naturally from the ground and power lines crisscross overhead.

A U.S. Forest Service environmental review of the proposal is due in late fall. Until then, Gastelum said, no one can determine how good or bad the dump will be.

“We want to base our arguments on credible studies and facts,” Gastelum said. “The majority out there is waiting to see what the facts are, and I don’t think that people will be swayed by a pizza box.”