LAKE VIEW TERRACE : Officials Want to Keep Dump Open

The Department of Sanitation wants to extend the life of Lopez Canyon Landfill by five years, but community members say the 30-year-old dump should be closed in 1996, as originally planned.

At a public hearing at 7 p.m. Monday at the Lake View Terrace Recreation Center, department officials will listen to comments on the issue. The hearing is the last chance for public input on a draft environmental report assessing the effect of continuing to operate the landfill until 2001 instead of closing it next year, as required under its current city permit.

Sanitation Department officials say continuing to operate the landfill would cost less than opening another dump or hauling trash elsewhere. The landfill holds 16 million tons of refuse, but has room for an additional 3 million tons.

But members of the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn. and other residents note that the city already extended the landfill’s operating permit once, for a five-year period in 1991. They say they do not want another extension.

“We were promised five years ago this dump would be closed,” said Barbara Hubbard, former president of the association. “The city said the first extension would allow them to look at alternatives to closing the landfill. Now, they’re coming back once again and asking for another extension. We feel we’ve been lied to.”

Other residents question the safety of the facility, citing water and air quality hazards. In November, the Air Quality Management District board issued three citations to the landfill, two for failing to capture leaking gas fumes and one for failing to cover exposed waste.

“The cumulative impact of these problems are not addressed in the draft environmental report,” said Roger Klemm, member of a local committee that monitors landfill issues. “These are things we feel are significant, like noise and dust, water runoff, gas leaks. Some things are mitigated better than others, but what about the overall impact?”

Officials say the landfill uses state-of-the-art equipment to prevent adverse effects on the environment.

“We’ve got a double liner with sensors and collectors that trap any leachate (water) that comes down through fill,” said Drew Sones, assistant director for solid resources at the Department of Sanitation. “Geologically, that area is sound. The ground water is deep. We also have an extensive methane gas collection system. I don’t deny that on occasion there will be a methane gas smell, but we monitor it very closely.”

Sones added that the city’s Board of Public Works, which oversees landfills, will review the draft EIR, an audit of the costs of keeping the landfill open longer, and seven alternate proposals from private waste-disposal companies before making a recommendation to the City Council about the landfill.