GRANADA HILLS : Dump’s Expansion May Soon Begin

A decade after it was first proposed, expansion of the Sunshine Canyon Landfill north of Granada Hills may begin in the next few days, the dump’s operator said Thursday.

Browning-Ferris Industries Inc. was granted permission Thursday by a Los Angeles County oversight committee to start preparing the land for the first phase of a 10-year, 17-million-ton expansion of the now-idle landfill.

“We’re very pleased about it,” said Browning-Ferris spokesman Arnie Berghoff. “It’s been a long time.”

But opponents of the dump, including Los Angeles city officials, said they will continue to fight the expansion in a sensitive oak woodland.

The dump straddles the border between Los Angeles city and county.

City officials say Browning-Ferris still needs permission for trash trucks to travel across the city portion of the dump as they make their way to the expansion, which is under the county’s jurisdiction.

“They have satisfied all of our requirements,” said county planner Richard Frazier. “But there may be other people’s requirements they have not met.”

The expansion was approved by the Board of Supervisors in November, but work was delayed by legal challenges. Earlier this month, a state appeals court allowed the project to proceed.

Opponents have filed new challenges, however.

Residents in the nearby communities of Granada Hills and Sylmar fear that reopening and expanding the dump will create health hazards in their neighborhoods and threaten the water supply at Van Norman Reservoir, just south of the landfill.

Browning-Ferris initially proposed in 1984 to increase the landfill’s capacity by 70 million tons, but that plan was scaled back to 17 million tons and approved by the Board of Supervisors in 1991. That decision sparked a myriad of legal assaults by opponents, some of which continue.

Also in 1991, the dump ceased operations after its city permit expired.