Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : McKeon Will Try to Block Elsmere Canyon Dump Plan : Environment: His bill aims at prohibiting a crucial land swap. But company officials doubt it will succeed.

Environmentalists’ fight against a proposed dump in nearby Elsmere Canyon reached new heights Wednesday when Congressman Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) said he would try to block the plan.

Using Elsmere Canyon as a backdrop, McKeon held a press conference that was also attended by about 50 area residents. A local environmental group later stunned the crowd by releasing dozens of balloons, which can be harmful to animals.

Plans for the 190-million-ton landfill, proposed by BKK Corp., call for a complex swap of land now owned by the U.S. Forest Service.

But McKeon said he would introduce a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives next week prohibiting the trade.

He called the proposal to use part of Angeles National Forest as a landfill “bad policy--it sends the wrong message. It is not OK to destroy our environment and trash our national forest.”

McKeon said his bill would prevent the U.S. secretary of agriculture from transferring any land within the Angeles National Forest out of federal ownership for use as a solid waste landfill.

City officials oppose the dump, claiming it would harm the air and underground water supply in surrounding areas and reduce property values.

Santa Clarita Mayor George Pederson welcomed McKeon’s help. “Up until now it has been a local issue,” he said. “This lifts it up to a level that’s much more important.”

However, those behind the landfill predict McKeon’s bill will not stop the project.

“We don’t think it will impact the process at all,” said Ron Gastelum, BKK chief administrative officer. “The U.S. Congress normally frowns on special interest legislation like this. And this is obviously aimed at Elsmere.”

In any case, Gastelum said that this late in the current session, he doubted that Congress would get to McKeon’s bill before next year. By then, Gastelum said BKK expects that the environmental review of the project will have been completed and the company will have addressed or dispelled many of the concerns.

When the Save the Angeles Foundation, an environmental group, released the balloons over the canyon, a murmur passed through the crowd. Most environmentalists oppose balloon releases because the litter can be accidentally swallowed by animals causing them to choke to death.

But most activists here were unwilling to criticize one of their own for the mistake. McKeon’s people also sounded startled about the release, but reluctant to complain.

“I think the overall message is that we care about the environment,” said Armando Azarloza, a field deputy for McKeon. “There’s a greater issue here, more than the balloons.”

The most candid response came from Keefe Ferrandini president of the Save the Angeles Foundation, who organized the event and candidly admitted the mistake.

Ferrandini said a small child approached her immediately after the balloons were let go, saying it wasn’t a good idea to release them.

“I learned something today,” admitted Ferrandini. “It is an example of how delicate the earth is and how easy it is to inadvertently threaten it.”