Lopez Canyon Dump May Not Close in ’96

The Lopez Canyon Landfill, the only dump now operated by the city of Los Angeles, may remain open for another five years, despite a promise to close it in February, 1996.

On Thursday, the landfill earned a “failing report card” from Councilman Richard Alarcon, who said the dump is a hazard to nearby Lake View Terrace residents.

But officials from the city’s Bureau of Sanitation defended the operation, saying in an annual report presented to the Planning Commission on Thursday that the landfill is largely within compliance of a conditional use permit granted in 1991.

That permit allowed the landfill to stay open for only five more years. But city officials have suggested keeping the landfill open longer as the most cost-effective means of disposing of the city’s garbage.

“We’re here to set the record straight,” Alarcon said at a news conference while surrounded by about 40 northeast San Fernando Valley community leaders who had gathered outside the Mission Hills Inn, where the Planning Commission was meeting. “That report is extremely misleading.”

Alarcon’s report card gave the landfill operators an “F” for keeping promises to close the landfill and maintain air quality. He gave them a “C” for water quality and for notifying the public of problems, and a “D” for its ground water monitoring system.

Alarcon, a former schoolteacher, gave the landfill an “A+” for “propaganda,” citing “slick PR materials that sugarcoat the ugly truth.”

In both the news conference and a later presentation to the Planning Commission, Alarcon referred to the high concentration of landfills--both open and closed--as examples of the city’s “environmental racism” against the largely minority northeast Valley.

“He is a very difficult speaker to follow,” said Delwin A. Biagi, the director of the Bureau of Sanitation.

Biagi said the city has begun looking for alternatives to the Lopez Canyon Landfill so that it may be closed as scheduled in February, 1996. He said the concentration of old landfills had more to do with an old practice of using holes created by sand and gravel excavations than with discrimination against the northeast Valley.

But he said that while other alternatives--such as using private haulers--could cost the city anywhere between $15 and $65 a ton, keeping Lopez Canyon open would cost between $11 and $13 a ton.

“If you only make a decision based on economic factors, Lopez Canyon is the cheapest alternative,” Biagi said. “But, of course, the City Council does not make decisions based solely on economic concerns.”

The Planning Commission heard from several community members, despite the fact that the only business before the body was to simply accept the bureau’s report.

Because of the opposition, the commission decided to receive the report, but only after ordering the Bureau of Sanitation to respond to residents’ concerns in writing.

“This is a very serious setback for the Bureau of Sanitation,” said Rob Zapple, head of the Kagel Canyon Civic Assn.

But Biagi saw no serious problems caused by the commission’s action.

“Every concern that was expressed has another side,” Biagi said after the meeting.

Alarcon and the bureau disagree about the number of incidents of air quality violations at the landfill in 1994.

The bureau counts three incidents for which the landfill was cited by the South Coast Air Quality Management District for exceeding state pollution limits.

But Alarcon says there were nine violations if each single day the landfill exceeded AQMD pollution limits were counted.