Agency to Review Lopez Canyon Dump

The state agency that regulates landfill safety will begin a review of operations at Lopez Canyon Landfill in Lake View Terrace, the last dump owned by the city of Los Angeles still in operation, officials said Wednesday.

The action, taken by the state Integrated Waste Management board, was announced by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) on Wednesday and comes as city sanitation officials press for a new five-year operating permit for the controversial landfill.

Lopez Canyon takes in nearly 4,000 tons of trash a day, a large percentage of the total amount of waste produced daily by Los Angeles residents. The dump’s current permit, already extended once for a five-year period, will expire in February, but Department of Sanitation officials say there is still room for another 3.3 million tons of trash.

Residents, environmentalists, elected officials and others have protested a possible second extension, citing violations of air and water quality at the landfill over the years and upbraiding officials for trying to break what they called the city’s promise to close the landfill in 1996.

In a letter to Katz, a vocal landfill critic, Wesley Chesbro, member of the Integrated Waste Management board wrote: “I share your concerns over the city of Los Angeles’ operation of the landfill. The history of complaints and violations is a serious regulatory matter.”

In July, the letter stated, the board will begin reviewing the performance of the landfill’s Local Enforcement Agency (LEA), the agency responsible for ensuring that safety measures are implemented and maintained at the dump. The enforcement agency for Lopez Canyon is the city’s own Environmental Affairs Department.

“The appearance of a conflict within the LEA process is a serious criticism of the current regulatory system,” Chesbro wrote. “If local agencies are to remain as the lead enforcement agencies for solid waste facilities operation, they must demonstrate an independence from government-operated landfills.”

Katz said he hopes the state’s action will prompt the city’s Board of Public Works, which is expected to make a recommendation on the landfill permit extension as early as Friday, to close the facility in February.

“Our concern is that if it’s the city that is policing the city at this landfill, then who’s been protecting the taxpayers?” said Katz in a telephone interview.

An official from the city’s Environmental Affairs Department said the city has not had problems enforcing regulations at the landfill.

“We believe those concerns were addressed when the waste board first reviewed our certification,” said Lillian Kawasaki, general manager of the department. “This issue has already been looked at.”

The department became the enforcement agency for Lopez Canyon in 1993, taking over for the city Bureau of Sanitation and Los Angeles County Health Services, Kawasaki said.

After the review is completed, the waste management board could decide to revoke the city’s authority to act as lead enforcement agency, Chesbro wrote in the letter to Katz.