LAKE VIEW TERRACE : Landfill Gas System Issue Goes to Board

The fate of a gas recovery system that would operate at the city-owned Lopez Canyon Landfill years after the dump’s scheduled closure is in the hands of the city Board of Public Works.

The board decided on Wednesday to put off until Sept. 27 a final decision on a proposed agreement between the city and Lopez Canyon Energy Partners, L.P., which would lease property at the site, finance and build the gas-to-energy facility, according to Gyl Elliott, public information officer for the Bureau of Sanitation’s Recycling and Waste Reduction Division.

Plans to build a landfill gas recovery, utilization and control system at the Lopez Canyon site--the only dump owned by the city--date back to 1985. Five proposals were submitted for the facility, with one from Cambrian Energy Systems eventually chosen.

Cambrian and other investors later formed Lopez Canyon Energy Partners, a legal entity that would own the facility, generate electricity and receive payments, so that it could receive federal tax credit benefits not available to the city.

The 392-acre Lopez Canyon Landfill takes in about 4,000 tons of garbage a day, or about one-fourth of the city’s total trash output. Neighbors in the surrounding communities of Lake View Terrace, Pacoima and Kagel Canyon have fought the dump since its inception in the 1970s.

According to a bureau of sanitation report, the proposed gas recovery facility would realize economic benefits of between $8.2 million and $13.9 million over the life of the project, the ownership of which would revert back to the city after the 15th year of operation. The dump is scheduled to close in 1996.

Monies would be generated by the sale of recovered gas and electricity generated at the site. Lopez Canyon Energy Partnership has already negotiated an agreement to sell electricity from the project to the city Department of Water and Power.

Such fumes have long been a sore point with area residents and the subject of fines levied by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. In 1991, an underground fire smoldered at the landfill for a week before being extinguished.