LOS ANGELES : City to Study Impact of Keeping Landfill Open
A Los Angeles city panel ordered a study Thursday on the environmental impact of expanding a municipal landfill slated to be closed in two years.
Residents in Lake View Terrace favor shutting the Lopez Canyon landfill, the last city-run dump. But alternatives--such as hauling trash by rail to Utah--could drive up costs.
“On proceeding with the environmental process, I think it’s very important to do that as quickly as possible,” Public Works Commissioner J. P. Ellman said.
“It doesn’t rule out the possibility of an alternative,” she said. “We’re still proceeding with that, looking for alternatives to Lopez,” she said. “We need to have something to take our refuse in February, 1996.”
In two weeks, the Board of Public Works will consider approving specifications for proposals from trash haulers interested in shipping the city’s refuse to a private landfill or to Utah.
Residents in the San Fernando Valley community have long complained about odors and trash polluting their neighborhood and truck traffic clogging their streets.
Councilwoman Laura Chick, head of the council’s Environmental Quality and Waste Management Committee, said the city might have no choice but to keep Lopez Canyon open if the alternatives cost $10 million to $20 million more a year.
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