Court Order Stops Clearing of Trees to Make Way for Dump Expansion

Just four days after it began, expansion of the Sunshine Canyon Landfill was brought to an abrupt halt Monday when a judge ordered the dump’s operator to stop work on the controversial project.

In a two-page ruling, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne told Browning Ferris Industries Inc. to stop cutting down more than 2,800 oak trees as it readies a wooded canyon north of Granada Hills for use as a garbage dump.

Wayne’s order--which stems from a lawsuit filed by dump opponents--came four days after Browning Ferris was granted permission to start the first phase of a 17-million-ton expansion. The judge will decide July 12 whether to make Monday’s order permanent and reinstate a 1991 stay that was lifted earlier this month. Until then, Browning Ferris spokesman Arnie Berghoff said, the company “will abide by the law.”

“But we think the lawsuit is literally without merit,” he added. “The judge issued the restraining order because she really hadn’t had a chance to look at the issues. We think she will lift it.”

Berghoff did not know how many trees had been removed before work stopped at midday Monday, but opponents said more than half of the 2,850 oaks had been destroyed.

“It’s pretty vicious,” said Rosemary Woodlock, an attorney for the North Valley Coalition of Concerned Citizens, which has pressed a variety of legal challenges against Browning Ferris.

Dump opponents protested Friday and Saturday outside the gates of the facility, portions of which are in both Los Angeles city and county. Only the county area would be expanded, and city officials oppose the dump expansion.

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson said the city will try to enforce an order barring Browning Ferris crews from using a small road in and out of the dump. City officials argue that Browning Ferris needs a city permit for heavy equipment to use the road.

Violating the order would be a misdemeanor.

“If they don’t obey the law, then somebody will make an arrest and make it stick,” Bernson said. “I would hope the city would fully enforce the law.”

The recent skirmishes are part of a decade-long fight over the landfill between Los Angeles city and county officials as well as between environmentalists and Browning Ferris, one of the nation’s largest waste-management companies.

In 1984, Browning Ferris proposed expanding the dump’s capacity by 70 million tons. That plan was scaled back to 17 million tons and approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 1991.

In that same year, the dump ceased operation after its city permit expired.

Los Angeles officials and the North Valley Coalition sued to overturn the original approval, claiming the environmental impact report did not adequately evaluate the dump’s effect on the area.

By 1992 a judge agreed, telling Browning Ferris it should have included information about past health and zoning violations at the dump and should have used a county panel of natural resource experts to review the project.

When those conditions were apparently met, the board again voted to approve the expansion. But opponents again took their case to the judge, who agreed that the county should allow more public review of the project.

After the board approved the dump for the third time last November, the judge agreed that Browning Ferris and the county had met all his concerns. Earlier this month, he lifted a stay that had prevented any work from beginning.

Launching a two-pronged legal challenge, the North Valley Coalition appealed that decision and then filed an entirely new lawsuit attacking county actions since the first complaint.