Anti-Landfill Arguments Don’t Hold Any Water

* Gerald Simmons’ article “Trashing Common Sense” (Valley Commentary, Nov. 14) ascribed to me the statement “There is enough (landfill) capacity (in L.A. County) to meet a state legal mandate that every county have 15 years’ disposal capacity.” I never did, and do not now, make any such claim.

Mr. Simmons’ only source of information from me is a report prepared by my staff, dated Aug. 11, 1993, that lists the present permitted and actual waste tonnages for 20 landfills in the county, as well as the remaining life expectancies for eight major landfills. Our report did not project the overall remaining landfill capacity for the county as a whole. Furthermore, the figures in our report could not be used by Mr. Simmons or anyone else to make such a projection, as they represent a snapshot in time and do not take into account important variables such as population increase, effect of recycling and new federal landfill regulations.

Nor does our report consider important restrictions that apply to some landfills. For example, Lopez Canyon may receive only residential wastes from the city of Los Angeles, and Puente Hills and Spadra may not accept any Los Angeles city wastes. Also, some of the landfills may not accept mixed municipal wastes, being restricted to non-putrescible wastes. Such restrictions are important in making any long-term projections.

Finally, I wish to make it clear that the report Mr. Simmons presented to the County Board of Supervisors at the Oct. 21 hearing on Sunshine Canyon, with landfill capacity projection figures he attributed to the California Integrated Waste Management Board, was not the work of this board.

ROBERT S. STONE

Fullerton

Stone is senior waste management specialist for the California Integrated Waste Management Board. * I was quite disturbed by the misinformation in Gerald Simmons’ article attacking the expansion of Sunshine Canyon Landfill in Granada Hills as a threat to the city’s water supply.

Simmons, who is a Granada Hills dentist, states that the landfill will contaminate the underground water supply as well as the Los Angeles Reservoir, and that “the lawsuits that will arise from drinking poisoned water will cost the county millions more than the county expects to collect in dumping fees.”

I have heard this same inaccurate argument put forth by others who oppose the landfill. The truth of the matter is that the underground aquifers from which the city depends for a portion of its water supply are nowhere near the landfill, and if the threat were real, the Department of Water and Power would have opposed the landfill from its inception.

Secondly, the Los Angeles Reservoir is concrete-lined and sealed, so no water can seep in from below. Water is brought into the reservoir from the Los Angeles-Owens River Aqueduct and not from wells.

In addition, any airborne contamination would be negated by the nearby Sylmar treatment plant, through which the water exits to homes.

We truly have a safe water supply that is monitored continually by dedicated people.

Simmons and others who use the water contamination tactic to further their goal are scaring the public unnecessarily.

LEON FURGATCH

Granada Hills