Embattled Landfill Manager Ousted : Sanitation: Air-quality violations at Lopez Canyon dump in Lake View Terrace lead to staff shake-up. Assemblyman and councilman call for its closure.

As state and local officials called for the closure of the Lopez Canyon Landfill in the wake of recent air-quality emission violations, Los Angeles sanitation officials Friday announced a management shake-up at the Lake View Terrace dump.

City officials said that in the next two weeks they will assign Steve Fortune, head of the city’s solid waste management division, to take over day-to-day operations from longtime landfill manager John De la Rosa.

J. P. Ellman, president of the city’s Board of Public Works, which oversees the dump, said she hopes the management reorganization will increase scrutiny of the landfill’s operation.

“There are some things that happened recently in Lopez Canyon that could have been avoided and should have been avoided if procedures were followed,” she said. “I’m very unhappy that procedures have not been followed.”

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Last month, the Air Quality Management District board issued landfill managers three citations: two for failing to capture leaking gas fumes in a collection system and one for failing to cover exposed waste.

The emissions, according to one witness, have a “sickly-sweet smell” that drifts into adjacent neighborhoods.

Although the air quality board has yet to decide on penalties for the violations, it can impose fines of up to $50,000 per day. The board does not have the authority to close the dump, but the state Integrated Waste Management board and the city can shut it down.

The management shake-up came at the same time that Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) and Los Angeles Councilman Richard Alarcon called for closing the 400-acre dump.

In a Dec. 7 letter to the Integrated Waste Management board, Katz said the violations are only the latest examples of the threat the landfill presents to nearby residents. He urged the board to shut it and launch an investigation into safety there.

“The people of Los Angeles will not suffer from closure of Lopez, as there is more than enough landfill capacity in the area available at a reasonable price,” he said in the letter.

Katz’s request came only a week after Alarcon cited the emission problems as a reason why the city should close the landfill when its permit expires in 1996.

“This is just one more example in a long series of incidents that call for the closure of this monstrosity in my district,” he said in a statement.

De la Rosa, who has managed the landfill for nine years, is Alarcon’s second cousin. Ellman said De la Rosa will be reassigned to study efficiency in the sanitation bureau.

The criticism from Katz and Alarcon is not new. Both are long-time opponents of the dump and have called for its closing in response to growing community protests.

The recent violations, however, do not seem serious enough to merit closing the dump, said Pat Macht, a spokeswoman for the Integrated Waste Management board.

Macht said staff members will review Katz’s request, probably determining next week what actions to take. In the meantime, however, she said, it does not appear that an urgent shutdown of the landfill was necessary.

“Closing a landfill is generally considered a last-resort measure,” Macht said. “We have to be careful we don’t go to immediate closure and create a garbage pileup.”

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An air quality board spokeswoman said the violations are not life-threatening and are typical of area landfills.

The Lopez Canyon Landfill “usually does a better job of self-monitoring than other landfills,” said spokeswoman Lisha Smith.

Sanitation officials said they are addressing the problems cited by the air quality board, and Ellman said she expects the management reorganization will eliminate future problems. The new executive, Fortune, “will step up quality control,” she said.

Times staff writer Cindy Craft contributed to this story.