L.A., Residents Press New Challenges Over Landfill : Granada Hills: The city sues Browning-Ferris for costs of fighting dump expansion. The company’s attorney says petitions prolong the controversy.

The complicated legal maneuvering surrounding the proposed expansion of Sunshine Canyon Landfill dragged on this week with new challenges from Los Angeles city officials and San Fernando Valley homeowners--including a request for the dump operator to pick up its opponents’ lawyer bills.

Expansion of the controversial trash dump north of Granada Hills was attacked on a number of fronts in several legal documents filed earlier this week, adding new dimensions to the complex fight that has brewed in courtrooms and hearing rooms for nearly a decade.

A 58-page petition filed Monday by the city and the North Valley Coalition of Concerned Citizens seeks to overturn the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors’ third approval of the dump expansion last November. Two prior approvals had been overturned by judges on technical grounds.

At issue is whether to allow the now-idle landfill just north of Granada Hills to expand by 17 million tons as part of a 10-year plan to increase the county’s waste disposal capacity. The dump has been closed since 1991.

Most of the issues raised in the petition are longstanding complaints of negligence and oversight that dump opponents have leveled for years against the county and the landfill’s operator, Browning-Ferris Industries.

The petition also contends the board ignored its own technical advisory committee, which had reservations about the expansion, and it questions whether the county even needs more landfill space.

Critics said Wednesday that they continue to raise the same issues because county officials and Browning-Ferris executives continue to ignore environmental laws that require them to address how an expanded landfill would affect the natural surroundings.

“It becomes almost like my own white whale,” said Mary Edwards of the North Valley Coalition, one of the dump’s leading critics. “I feel like Ahab up on the deck stomping around.”

But in a notable move, city attorneys on Wednesday sued Los Angeles County and Browning-Ferris to recover roughly $500,000 in legal costs they have run up fighting the expansion. Deputy City Atty. Keith Pritsker said the suit is allowed under a new state law that permits one government agency suing another over a public project to recover legal costs.

Under an agreement with Los Angeles County, however, Browning-Ferris is responsible for all legal costs stemming from the board’s approval of the project--a figure that could swell easily to over $1 million.

Also Monday, a group of Latino residents who live near the landfill sued to overturn the Board of Supervisors’ approval on the grounds that many Latinos were locked out of discussion on the project because documents were not published in Spanish.

Browning-Ferris attorney Steven Weston had not yet seen two of this week’s petitions, but called the challenge filed by the city and the North Valley Coalition “frivolous.”

“We are disappointed they continue to rehash the same claims,” Weston said, adding that the petition only served to prolong the controversy. He hinted that the landfill operator might strike back. “Our patience is wearing thin and management is a little bit fed up,” he said.

Indeed, the city’s suit would have little immediate effect. The project is already under an indefinite stay until issues raised in earlier lawsuits are decided by higher courts and Browning-Ferris cannot proceed until the stay is lifted.

But Pritsker said the city complaint will guarantee yet another judicial review of the project regardless of how higher courts rule. “Once you start ripping out oak forests, you can’t undo that,” said Pritsker, referring to the wildlife habitat the expansion would destroy.