Topics : ENVIRONMENT : Water Agencies to Fight Reopening of Landfill

A coalition of local water agencies led by the Main San Gabriel Basin Watermaster will fight Browning Ferris Industries’ decision to reopen the controversial Azusa Landfill to household waste.

The group filed a petition with the State Water Resources Control Board this month to stop BFI subsidiary Azusa Land Reclamation Co. from accepting household trash at the site, said Mark McDonald, attorney for the watermaster, the agency that distributes water from the San Gabriel ground water basin and oversees Superfund cleanup efforts of the ground water.

The landfill in an old rock quarry south of the Foothill Freeway began taking household trash again May 19. It sits atop an aquifer that supplies water to a million people.

“It’s foolish to believe this landfill won’t threaten the region’s water supply,” McDonald said. The San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District, a coalition member, has indicated that it will sue BFI if there is any evidence of ground water contamination from the landfill.

The coalition said the state Court of Appeal and the state water board ordered the facility three years ago to stop taking household trash other than construction and demolition debris.

In 1991, the operator lost a lengthy battle to expand the municipal trash landfill by 302 acres, with the judge saying enlargement would threaten the aquifer.

But landfill operators say the court order and subsequent instructions from the state water board allow dumping of household waste in the existing 80-acre landfill and the placing of inert construction materials in the 302-acre expansion. At the time of the court order, they said, they thought the original site was full. But because of new mapping technologies and decomposition of waste, the company now says it has room for 160,000 truckloads of household waste.

The coalition fighting the landfill also includes the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the Three Valleys Municipal Water District and the Upper San Gabriel Water District.