Lopez Dump Audit Cites Savings of $56 Million, Upsets Opponents : Environment: Residents, Councilman Richard Alarcon blast private accounting firm’s findings. City officials will use it in fight to extend site near Lake View Terrace.

In a setback for landfill opponents, Los Angeles officials said Monday that an independent audit shows the city would save $56 million by extending the life of the Lopez Canyon Landfill near Lake View Terrace until 2001.

Macias & Co., a private accounting firm hired by sanitation officials, found that the city would spend $14.62 per ton to dump trash in the landfill after extending it past its 1996 closing date, compared to $24.98 per ton to haul it elsewhere.

The savings predictions provide new fodder for city officials who have recommended the landfill extension over strong opposition from politicians, residents and environmentalists. Sanitation officials made a recommendation to extend the life of the landfill after releasing a March, 1994, study that predicted a $72-million savings by such an extension.

The report said that extending the life of Lopez Canyon would be the cheapest alternative because the city has already paid for many capital improvements at the landfill and has set aside money to close the dump.

But Lake View Terrace residents and Councilman Richard Alarcon, a longtime landfill opponent who represents the area, criticized the March, 1994, study, calling it flawed and demanded a new study.

Sanitation officials eventually conceded that the March, 1994, study contained out-of-date data and employed Macias & Co. to complete an independent audit.

The accounting firm analyzed the cost of extending the landfill as well as the cost estimates provided by private trash firms who have submitted proposals to haul the city’s trash to alternative dumps.

The city collects and dumps about 5,000 tons of refuse per day, most of which ends up at the city-owned Lopez Canyon landfill. The 400-acre landfill is expected to have room for more than 3 million tons of trash once the current permit expires in 1996.

Sanitation officials expect to have room for all the city’s trash in the landfill over the next five years because recycling efforts are expected to reduce the amount of trash by almost 70%.

Although the new independent analysis generally supports the city’s earlier conclusions, critics rejected the new report and continued to blast the city recommendations to extend the landfill.

Woody Hastings, an Alarcon aide, dismissed the savings prediction, saying he questions the data that sanitation officials provided to Macias & Co. on which the firm based its audit.

“We continue to maintain that this audit is inadequate,” he said.

He added that the landfill’s operating agreement includes a clause that, in essence, promises no further extensions past 1996.

“It’s a matter of keeping a promise,” Hastings said.

At a hearing on Monday before the city’s Board of Public Works, which oversees operation of the landfill, other opponents sought to shoot holes in the savings prediction and criticized a revised study on the landfill extension which predicts no significant environmental damage if the dump’s life is extended.

But J.P. Ellman, president of the board, reminded opponents that the landfill’s operating permit expires in February, 1996, and without an extension or an alternative, the city will be without a suitable site to dump its trash.

“Time is running and it’s almost May and we have to act on these items,” she said.

The board was scheduled Monday to consider whether to file an application for the landfill extension, which would have to be approved by the city’s Planning Commission and, ultimately, the City Council. But Ellman delayed a decision at least until Friday to further study the Macias & Co. audit as well as other reports.

A community hearing on the landfill is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at Lake View Terrace Recreation Center, 11075 Foothill Blvd.