Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Officials Tour Proposed Dump Site : Elsmere Canyon: Planners gather more facts on possible landfill area. Environmentalists, developers face off.

It was supposed to be a fact-finding mission free of politics.

But as county planning officials toured the site of a proposed 190-million-ton garbage dump on Thursday, both the landfill developers and opponents could not help but make subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, comments within earshot of the planning commissioners who will help decide the fate of Elsmere Canyon.

“Oh, look at that hawk!” yelled Santa Clarita Councilwoman Jan Heidt, as the commissioners looked out across the canyon from the top of a ridge.

Thursday’s tour was part of the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission’s examination into whether BKK Corp. should be allowed to turn Elsmere Canyon, situated just southeast of Santa Clarita, into a landfill.

The canyon is partly located in Angeles National Forest and the proposal would require a land swap in which the U.S. Forest Service would acquire two parcels of privately owned land in exchange for parkland.

Public hearings for both sides of the issue have already started. Proponents spoke Downtown on May 10 and opponents are gearing up for their chance to speak at a hearing in Valencia next week.

The field trip was designed to augment the maps and reports that had been presented to the commissioners, but quickly turned into a political game.

Driving her little Subaru with plates that read “ELSMERE,” Keefe Ferrandini, president of the Save the Angeles Foundation, pointed out the natural landscape of the canyons, explaining the folklore of the canyons and listing the wild animals, such as bobcats and bears, that live in the area.

“I want this to be the poster-child for the commission that says, you really have gone too far,” Ferrandini said.

A consultant to BKK Corp., Tom Rogers, complained to county officials each time the local environmentalists pointed out highlights of the canyon.

Following the tour, Ken Kazarian, president of the Elsmere Corp., a division of BKK, said in an interview that the landfill’s design would make it as clean and safe as possible, by using multiple layers of dirt, rock, plastic and clay to protect ground water.

Kazarian said he was not bothered by the comments made by activists during the tour, but did say, “I’m surprised they didn’t have some guy dressed up as Sasquatch come out from behind a tree.”

The tour was also an opportunity for the landfill developers and community activists to come face to face.

“People on opposing sides were on the edge of a precipice together,” Ferrandini said, after being squeezed together with BKK representatives atop a narrow ledge of a cliff.

The public hearing for the opposition of the landfill is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at Valencia High School, 27801 N. Dickason Drive.