Trial Begins Over Fate of Landfill : West Covina: BKK Corp. and city square off in legal dispute over history of agreement to close facility.

After two years of legal wrangling and political trash talk, the city of West Covina and BKK Corp. finally squared off in court Wednesday, with the fate of Southern California’s second-biggest landfill on the line.

Expected to consume six to eight weeks, the trial and the maneuvers leading up to it already have exacted steep emotional and financial costs. By the time the Los Angeles Superior Court case wraps up, the city and BKK together will have shelled out more than $4 million in attorney fees, those involved in the dispute predict.

And as the trial has neared, feelings became so frayed that normally cordial officials from City Hall and the Torrance-based waste outfit found themselves trading personal barbs--or not on speaking terms.

“It’s hard to be detached,” said West Covina City Atty. Elizabeth Hanna Dixon. “There’s a lot of frustration on both sides.”

Wednesday’s court session was a largely technical one dominated by evidence-limiting motions and other procedural issues. Opening statements are still days off, according to lawyers.

The case revolves around a nine-page memorandum of understanding that the city and BKK executives signed in 1985, when the push to close the facility began in earnest.

West Covina lawyers filed suit two years ago, arguing that the memorandum was a binding contract that requires the company to seal the landfill by November. “There is no legal argument or public policy argument that would allow them to set aside that agreement just because they want to change their mind,” Dixon said.

BKK executives say that’s hogwash, maintaining that the memorandum was only a loose agreement for the company to transform the dump into an office and industrial park, if feasible. City officials, they allege, dragged their feet implementing that conversion, thus giving the company the right to keep the facility open until its city landfill permit expires in 2006.

“We are disappointed we have to go through this nonsense that we think is politically motivated and costing millions of dollars, but we are very confident about our case,” said Gary Kovall, BKK general counsel.

The city estimates that the landfill brings in about $40 million in annual revenue to BKK; company officials have declined to reveal their financial data.

Ironically, West Covina and BKK were on chummy terms only five years ago, as the 578-acre facility accepted thousands of tons of trash from a burgeoning population and City Hall enjoyed the millions of dollars in tax revenues it generated.

Even as the Superior Court case got under way, the city and waste company are waging a fresh legal battle.

BKK filed suit in Los Angeles federal court April 28 alleging that key city leaders and homeowners have orchestrated a campaign of regulatory and legal harassment against the company the past three years. The civil rights suit, still probably months away from trial, seeks to halt that alleged campaign and unspecified monetary damages.